WALLED  CITY 

ASTOfcYOF 
THE  CRIMINAL  INSANE 


Hf  EDWARD 
HUNTINGTON 


UCSB   LIBRARY 

.         /^7 
A  . 


THE   WALLED    CITY 


A    STORY   OF   THE 
CRIMINAL  INSANE 


BY 

EDWARD  HUNTINGTON  WILLIAMS,  M.D. 

Formerly  Assistant  Professor  of  Pathology  and  Bacteriology,  State 

University  of  Iowa;  formerly  Assistant  Physician  at  the 

Matteawan  State  Hospital  for  Insane  Criminals; 

Assistant   Physician  at  the  Manhattan 

State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  etc. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1913 


Copyright,  1913,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

(Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America) 

Published  May,  1913 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 9 

Chapter  I. — TYPES  OF  THE  INSANE    ...    13 

Chapter  II. — SOCIAL     POSITION     IN     THE 

WALLED  CITY 27 

Chapter  III. — LAW   AND    ORDER    IN    THE 

WALLED  CITY 45 

Chapter  IV. — THE  CITIZENS  AT  PLAY    .    .    65 
Chapter  V. — THE  LAW'S  LONG  ARM      .     .    97 

Chapter  VI. — THE  SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE 

CITY  RULERS 143 

Chapter  VII. — WITS  versus  THE  LONG  ARM  163 

Chapter  VIII— THE  "SHOT" 189 

Chapter  IX. — CONTENTED  CITIZENS  .     .     .  213 

Chapter  X. — WHEN    DANGER    THREATENS 

THE  CITY 231 

Chapter  XI. — INJUSTICE  WITHIN  THE  WALLS  243 

Chapter  XII. — THE  EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOV- 
ERNMENT .    .  253 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACING 
PAGE 

A  FAMOUS  WALLED  CITY  .     .    Frontispiece 

DORMITORY  AND  LIBRARY  IN  THE  DANNE- 
MORA  (N.  Y.)  STATE  HOSPITAL  ....    52 

DAY  ROOM  AND  MACHINE  SHOP  IN  THE  HOS- 
PITAL AT  OVERBROOK,  N.  J 53 

AN  EXHIBITION  OF  HOME-MADE  PRODUCTS 
IN  THE  HOSPITAL  AT  OVERBROOK,  N.  J.    80 

THE    ATTRACTIVE    AMUSEMENT    HALL    AT 
OVERBROOK,  N.  J 81 

A  WALLED-CITY  BROOM  FACTORY  ....  134 

CITIZEN  RUG  MAKERS 135 

A  MODEL  KITCHEN 156 

THE  BAKERY  IN  THE  HOSPITAL  AT  OVER- 
BROOK,  N.J 157 

RECREATION  HALL  AT  THE  DANNEMORA  (N. 

Y.)  STATE  HOSPITAL 196 

THE  PROLONGED  BATH 197 

A  DAY  ROOM  IN  THE  DANNEMORA  (N.  Y.) 

STATE   HOSPITAL 224 

AN  AMUSEMENT  HALL  AT  THE  DANNEMORA 

(N.  Y.)  STATE  HOSPITAL 225 

AN    ATTRACTIVE    COURT    YARD    FOR    PA- 
TIENTS AT  OVERBROOK,  N.  J 256 

ONE  OF  THE  DINING-ROOMS  IN  THE  HOSPITAL 

AT  OVERBROOK,  N.  J 257 


INTRODUCTION 

So  far  as  I  am  aware  no  true  story  of 
the  life  of  the  insane  criminal  has  ever 
been  written  for  the  general  public.  It 
has  been  told  in  a  technical  manner,  of 
course,  for  the  benefit  of  those  interested 
in  the  scientific  and  sociological  aspect  of 
the  subject,  but  such  writings  have  little 
popular  interest,  and  do  not  convey  a  cor- 
rect picture  to  the  mind  of  the  average 
reader.  There  have  also  been  sensational 
writings  by  former  inmates,  or  by  well- 
meaning  enthusiasts,  who  have  taken  a 
hasty  and  altogether  inadequate  survey  of 
some  criminal  institutions  and  upon  this 
veneer  have  founded  their  stories.  But 
none  of  these  writings  give  the  average 
reader  a  true  picture  of  the  daily  life  as 
it  goes  on  in  these  interesting  institutions. 
9 


INTRODUCTION 

The  first  are  too  technical;  the  second  too 
prejudiced;  the  last  too  unreliable  as  to 
facts. 

It  is  my  purpose  here  to  tell  of  the  life 
in  these  "Walled  Cities"  as  I  have  seen  it, 
untrammeled  by  the  restraint  that  curbs 
the  person  holding  an  official  position,  the 
bias  that  blinds  the  former  inmate,  or  the 
mere  surface  knowledge  of  the  outsider. 
With  this  end  in  view  I  have  confined  my- 
self largely  to  a  straightforward  narrative 
of  events,  most  of  which  have  come  under 
my  personal  observation  in  the  last  fif- 
teen years.  To  the  generality  of  people 
many  of  these  things  are  novel  and  start- 
ling; to  those  familiar  with  the  subject 
they  are  commonplace  facts.  But  I  be- 
lieve that  most  people  will  be  surprised  to 
find  that  the  picture,  on  the  whole,  is  not 
a  particularly  gloomy  one,  as  they  may 
have  imagined  it.  There  are  high  lights 
here  as  in  every  other  picture. 
10 


Chapter  I 
TYPES  OF  THE  INSANE 


11 


THE    WALLED     CITY 

Chapter  I 
TYPES   OF   THE   INSANE 

Occasionally  some  outsider  penetrates 
the  secret  chambers  of  some  interesting 
but  obscure  community — glances  between 
the  covers  of  the  closed  book  of  a  Shaker 
colony,  a  Mormon  settlement,  a  Trappist 
retreat — and  finds  a  new  world  full  of  in- 
terest because  of  its  very  novelty.  Here 
he  finds  ordinary  human  beings  like  him- 
self who  are  living  lives  like  our  own  in 
the  main,  and  yet  with  certain  distinct  dif- 
ferences— differences  that  have  become 
characteristic  of  each  community.  It  is 
these  differences,  of  course,  that  are  of 
perennial  interest  to  the  outsider. 
13 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Most  of  the  pages  of  these  erstwhile 
closed  books  of  the  communities,  however, 
have  been  so  thoroughly  scanned  in  recent 
years  that  much  of  the  novelty  and  charm 
of  turning  the  pages  has  disappeared. 
They  are  now  simply  well-thumbed  tomes 
in  our  library  of  general  information. 

But  there  are  other  interesting  com- 
munities scattered  all  over  the  world 
whose  doings  are  quite  as  interesting  and 
vastly  more  thrilling  than  those  of  prosaic 
Shaker  or  Trappist.  Every  country  and 
every  state  has  such  settlements — com- 
munities of  the  greatest  importance  to  the 
commonwealth — of  which  many  people 
have  never  heard,  and  into  whose  secret 
chambers  few,  indeed,  have  even  pene- 
trated, outside  a  small  official  family. 
Closely  guarded,  heavily  walled  institu- 
tions where  the  criminal  mental  derelict 
finds  a  resting  place,  frequently  a  haven. 
I  refer  to  those  institutions  for  the  care  of 
14 


TYPES    OF    THE    INSANE 

the  criminal  insane, — great  Walled  Cities, 
as  strongly  built  and  as  carefully  guarded 
as  medieval  strongholds,  and  frequently 
with  quite  as  many  inhabitants  within  the 
walls. 

The  very  name  of  these  institutions  sug- 
gests creepy  possibilities.  To  most  per- 
sons the  word  " asylum"  suggests  only 
visions  of  padded  cells  and  strait- jack- 
ets; yet  neither  of  these  things  are  now 
found  in  most  criminal  asylums.  But  there 
are  many  things  to  be  seen  about  such  in- 
stitutions quite  as  interesting  and  far  less 
repulsive.  Within  the  tightly  closed  walls 
of  these  great  establishments  life  goes  on, 
with  its  loves  and  hates,  desires  and  ex- 
pectations, hopes  and  ambitions,  almost 
the  same  as  in  the  great  world  outside. 
Almost,  but  with  a  difference. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  life,  with 
its  various  imports,  does  not  cease  to  the 
condemned  man  with  the  closing  behind 
15 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

him  of  the  steel  portals  of  Matteawan,  or 
any  other  similar  institution.  His  hopes 
for  the  future,  while  they  may  be  perverted 
according  to  outside  standards,  are  just  as 
real,  true,  and  important  to  him,  as  are 
those  of  his  more  fortunate  brother.  A 
Thaw  or  a  Shrank  commits  a  revolting 
crime,  is  adjudged  insane,  and  sent  away 
to  the  criminal  asylum  to  spend  the  rest 
of  his  days  there.  To  the  world  he  is 
dead,  for  he  will  never  appear  again  out- 
side. And  yet  his  life  goes  on, — possibly 
becomes  a  happier  and  more  useful  life 
than  it  has  ever  been  before.  Something 
of  the  life  as  led  by  such  men  must  surely 
be  of  interest  to  many  people. 

To  most  people  the  insane  man  is  a  hair- 
tearing,  raving  creature,  quite  different 
from  our  normal  selves.  But  in  point  of 
fact  most  lunatics  are  not  "raving  mani- 
acs ' '  at  all.  Someone  has  said  that ' '  there 
are  more  raving  maniacs  in  works  of  fic- 
16 


TYPES    OF    THE    INSANE 

tion  than  ever  existed  in  fact";  and  in 
truth  the  most  dangerous  lunatic  may  be 
the  very  antithesis  of  the  raving  maniac, — 
the  cool,  calculating,  melancholy  type  of 
person,  rather  than  the  excited  one.  Yet 
of  course  the  excited  ones  do  exist,  al- 
though in  the  wards  of  the  Walled  City 
their  numbers  do  not  predominate — are 
scarcely  more  proportionately,  indeed, 
than  the  excitable  members  of  many  nor- 
mal communities. 

Excitability  alone,  then,  cannot  be  taken 
as  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  City.  But  what  is  the 
distinguishing  mark  of  these  people  ?  How 
are  we  to  tell  an  inhabitant  if  we  should 
chance  to  meet  him? 

The  answer  is  a  difficult  one :  so  difficult, 
indeed,  that  no  one  has  as  yet  been  able 
to  express  it  satisfactorily.  And  yet  there 
is  a  very  definite  answer ;  one  upon  which 
all  the  rulers  of  all  Walled  Cities  will 
17 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

agree.  But  it  is  one  born  of  experience, 
and  no  one  can  learn  it  from  rules  found 
in  books,  any  more  than  the  diamond  ex- 
pert can  learn  to  detect  the  gem  from  the 
imitation  except  by  long  practice.  The 
significant  thing  is  that  he  can  detect  the 
difference  with  unfailing  certainty.  If 
asked  to  tell  just  how  he  did  it,  he  is  at  a 
loss  for  an  answer.  He  could  not  lay  down 
any  rules  or  give  scientific  tests  that  would 
enable  anyone  to  learn  to  detect  the  gem 
at  a  glance — anyone  but  an  expert  like 
himself  who  has  learned  by  long  practise 
what  apparently  cannot  be  learned  in  any 
other  way. 

The  case  of  the  expert  judge  of  insanity 
is  in  many  ways  analogous  to  that  of  the 
gem-expert.  Long  practise  and  long  as- 
sociation make  it  possible  for  him  to  de- 
tect mental  aberration  almost  instinc- 
tively. Unlike  the  gem  expert,  however, 
he  is  unable  to  confirm  his  diagnosis  im- 
18 


TYPES    OF    THE    INSANE 

mediately  by  chemical  analysis  if  neces- 
sary, although  in  practical  results  the 
great  institutions  where  the  patients  are 
confined  and  carefully  observed  may  be 
said  to  play  the  part  of  the  chemical  lab- 
oratory for  a  final  determination. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  attempting  the  im- 
possible task  of  defining  the  conditions  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Walled  City,  we 
shall  do  better,  after  glancing  hastily  at  a 
few  of  the  more  general  types,  to  tell  some- 
thing of  the  every-day  life  of  the  inhabi- 
tants. How  they  are  governed,  what  they 
think  and  do,  and  what  finally  becomes  of 
the  great  majority  of  them. 

As  we  said  a  moment  ago,  a  much  more 
common  type  of  man  than  the  excited 
maniac,  always  to  be  seen  in  the  halls  of 
every  asylum,  is  the  melancholy  type  of 
lunatic.  All  day  long  he  may  be  seen  sit- 
ting with  drooping  head  and  shoulders 
bowed  down  by  the  weight  of  imaginary 
19 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

sorrows.  He  pays  no  attention  to  his  sur- 
roundings; the  palace  would  be  the  same 
as  the  prison  to  him;  for  he  cannot  take 
his  thoughts  from  himself  and  his  trou- 
bles, and  surroundings  make  no  difference. 
Possibly  he  varies  the  monotony  of  sitting 
drooping  in  his  chair  by  shuffling  up  and 
down,  up  and  down  the  halls,  wringing  his 
hands,  and  repeating  his  sorrows,  or  mum- 
bling incoherently  to  himself.  Or,  again, 
he  may  refuse  to  speak  at  all  under  any 
circumstances;  or,  if  he  can  be  roused  to 
answer  a  question,  he  mumbles  some  dis- 
connected and  entirely  irrelevant  sentence 
— a  meaningless  jumble  of  words  that  he 
has  repeated  thousands  of  times. 

It  is  this  type  of  insane  man  that  is  most 
frequently  imitated  by  malingerers,  of 
whom  I  shall  have  more  to  say  a  little 
farther  on.  The  reason  for  this  is  obvious. 
Even  a  very  poor  actor  may  simulate  de- 
pression and  sorrow,  may  mumble  one  in- 
20 


TYPES    OF    THE    INSANE 

coherent  sentence,  may  refuse  to  speak  or 
eat.  And  such  a  person  may  deceive  even 
a  very  skilful  expert  for  a  time,  as  shown 
by  such  a  case  as  that  of  Nellie  Bly.  But 
it  requires  a  consummate  actor,  with  the 
skill  of  a  Booth  or  an  Irving,  to  imitate 
the  raving  maniac  in  a  manner  to  deceive 
the  alienist.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  if  any 
malingerer  who  attempted  this  form  of  de- 
ception ever  succeeded  for  any  very  great 
length  of  time. 

Almost  as  common  as  the  melancholy 
type  of  lunatic  is  the  man  who  hears  imag- 
inary voices  calling  him; — imaginary  to 
others,  but  terribly  real  to  him.  Wherever 
he  goes,  whatever  he  does,  his  voices  fol- 
low him  and  call  to  him.  Possibly  they  tell 
him  to  kill :  in  which  case  we  may  have  the 
insane  murderer.  Perhaps  they  command 
him  to  burn;  and  a  "fire  bug"  is  the  re- 
sult. Or  perhaps  they  confine  themselves 
to  heaping  abuses  and  revilings  upon  the 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

afflicted  man  himself.  Escape  from  their 
torments  is  impossible;  and  it  is  the  vic- 
tim of  such  hallucinations  that  springs 
from  his  chair  now  and  again  shaking  his 
fist  in  the  air  and  cursing  his  tormentors 
when  he  can  bear  their  torments  no  longer. 

Occasionally,  though  far  less  frequently, 
the  imaginary  voices  bear  pleasant  mes- 
sages. And  then  the  listener  smiles  to 
himself,  or  even  laughs  outright  at  the 
funny  things  they  tell  him. 

But  by  far  the  most  dangerous,  and  all 
too  common,  type  of  insanity  is  that  known 
technically  as  ' '  paranoia, "  and  popularly 
as  monomania.  This  is  the  type  where 
most  of  the  faculties  may  appear  to  be 
practically  normal,  and  judgment  and  rea- 
soning power  seem  unimpaired  save  only 
on  the  one  subject,  or  train  of  subjects,  of 
the  delusion.  Unfortunately  this  delusion 
usually  takes  the  form  of  imaginary  perse- 
cution. An  employer,  or  a  friend,  or  a 
22 


TYPES    OF    THE    INSANE 

relative,  is  plotting  against  the  victim. 
Day  after  day  he  goes  about  his  business 
secretly  bearing  his  cross,  until  the  load 
becomes  intolerable;  and  then  may  come 
some  terrible  tragedy — the  assassination 
of  a  Garfield  or  a  Humbert. 

As  a  member  of  the  Walled  City  com- 
munity this  man's  condition  is  likely  to  be 
most  deceptive.  He  is  intelligent,  active, 
useful.  He  reads  the  literature  of  the  day 
and  can  discuss  all  subjects  intelligently 
and  logically — save  only  the  one  that  most 
vitally  concerns  him.  No  one  but  an  expert 
may  detect  his  abnormality,  unless  fa- 
miliar with  his  fixed  delusion.  But  he  is 
doomed  to  remain  a  permanent  member  of 
the  community,  for  no  case  of  this  kind  of 
insanity  has  ever  been  known  to  recover. 

There  are  still  other  types  of  insanity 
that  have  come  to  be  recognized  only  in 
recent  years,  such  as  the  one  known  fa- 
miliarly as  *  *  paresis. ' '  But  suff  erers  from 
23 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

this  form  of  aberration  are  not  quite  as 
likely  to  be  found  in  criminal  institutions 
as  in  the  more  aristocratic  ones.  It  is 
essentially  a  disease  of  high-life,  although 
the  lower  strata  of  society  do  not  escape 
entirely.  And  since  our  dealings  are  with 
the  criminal  insane  the  discussion  of  this 
and  some  of  those  other  forms  of  mental 
afflictions  may  be  left  for  another  place, 
particularly  as  our  concern  here  is  largely 
with  them  as  members  of  a  definite  com- 
munity rather  than  with  their  forms  of 
mental  affliction. 


Chapter  II 

SOCIAL    POSITION    IN    THE    WALLED 
CITY 


Chapter  II 


Pen  pictures  of  the  insane  in  the  differ- 
ent phases  of  their  insanity  give  only 
vague  impressions  of  the  actual  life  as  it 
goes  on  within  the  City.  A  closer  inspec- 
tion and  a  more  intimate  association  are 
necessary  if  we  are  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  innermost  workings  of  the  com- 
munity. 

One  orientated  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
criminal  asylums  would  soon  discover  that 
altho  there  is  no  distinction  of  classes  as 
far  as  the  asylum  authorities  are  con- 
cerned, yet  such  distinctions  do  exist  in 
the  wards.  Patients  of  all  classes  mingle 
27 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

in  the  great  sitting  rooms  of  the  building, 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  of  them  in  each  of 
the  well-lighted  halls.  All  eat  the  same 
kind  of  food,  sleep  on  the  same  kind  of 
beds.  All  of  them  are  criminals  and  pris- 
oners. Yet  there  are  "  aristocrats "  and 
"common  herd"  here,  just  as  there  are 
outside.  Your  forger  of  a  fifty  thousand 
dollar  check,  or  the  professional  safe- 
blower  and  bank  robber,  may  be  on  the 
best  of  terms  with  the  common  "sneak 
thief"  seated  near  him — may  even  conde- 
scend to  play  cards  with  him  and  chew  his 
tobacco.  But  as  for  considering  him  as  an 
equal !  That  is  quite  another  matter. 

' '  Why  that  fellow  is  nothing  but  a  sneak 
thief,"  a  burglar  said  to  me  one  day, 
speaking  in  all  seriousness  contemptu- 
ously of  a  fellow  convict. 

"Well,  you  are  in  for  burglary  yourself, 
are  you  not?"  I  suggested  mildly. 

"Sure  I  am,"  he  assented,  "but  not  for 
28 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

pocket  picking.  I  am  a  second-story  man, 
I  am." 

There  it  was  in  a  nut-shell.  In  our 
Walled  City  all  were  convicts,  but  not  the 
same  kind  of  convicts.  The  housebreaker 
held  the  pick-pocket  in  contempt,  and  was 
in  turn  looked  down  upon  by  the  forger, 
and  so  on  up  the  scale  of  the  social  ladder. 
And,  when  one  came  to  know  the  different 
classes  better,  one  discovered  that  there 
was  a  good  reason  for  this :  that  the  men- 
tal gap  between  a  "high-class"  criminal, 
such  as  a  safe-blower,  and  a  common  sneak 
thief  is  as  wide  as  that  between  a  Stewart 
or  a  Wanamaker  and  a  corner  groceryman. 

This  mental  gap  is  evidenced  in  many 
ways.  In  newspaper  reading,  for  example, 
the  "yellow  journal"  that  appeals  to  the 
low-class  criminal  is  often  looked  upon 
with  contempt  by  his  "high-class"  brother 
— and  in  the  criminal  asylums  newspaper 
reading  is  a  favorite  pastime.  A  patient 
29 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

may  be  greatly  perverted  on  some  particu- 
lar subject,  or  have  the  most  peculiar  fixt 
delusion  about  himself,  and  yet  be  able  to 
read,  appreciate,  and  enjoy  the  newspa- 
pers. Not  only  that,  but  he  may  have  a 
grasp  of  political  situations  and  financial 
conditions  that  would  do  credit  to  any  hon- 
est citizen  outside. 

I  had  charge  of  a  criminal  patient  at  one 
time  who  firmly  believed  that  he  was  the 
president  of  the  United  States.  The  ear- 
nestness of  his  belief  had  brought  him  to 
the  asylum.  And  yet  this  man  was  ra- 
tional enough  on  most  other  subjects,  and 
had  sufficient  intelligence  to  discuss  po- 
litical and  financial  situations  of  the  day 
with  quite  as  keen  perception  and  with  as 
calm  judgment  as  any  intelligent  man  out- 
side. But  even  so  much  as  touch  the  magic 
button  that  connected  with  his  delusion, — 
even  hint  that  he  himself  was  not  the  presi- 
dent of  whom  the  papers  were  speaking. 
30 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

and  this  man  of  keen  perception  would  be 
transformed  into  a  gibbering  sophist. 

It  is  this  type  of  unfortunate  who  is  for- 
ever being  haled  to  court,  and  convicted 
and  sent  to  prison,  because  he  "cannot  tell 
right  from  wrong."  He  can  do  so  in  the 
abstract  but  not  in  the  case  where  self  is 
involved.  This  man  in  the  hospital  will 
often  ridicule  a  patient  whose  delusion  is  a 
counterpart  of  his  own,  and  yet  be  abso- 
lutely unable  to  recognize  the  similarity  of 
their  cases. 

Such  cases  afford  thought  for  the  crim- 
inologist,  and  should  be  better  understood 
by  juries  and  jurists.  And  this  is  equally 
true  of  another  class  of  cases,  those  that 
can  do  some  things  so  well  and  still  be  so 
irrational  and  irresponsible. 

In  a  certain  town  in  the  West  not  long 
ago  a  murderer  was  condemned  and  exe- 
cuted, largely  because  he  was  the  best 
euchre  player  in  the  jail  in  which  he  was 
31 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

confined  before  his  trial.  No  one  doubted 
or  disputed  the  charge  of  murder  brought 
against  him ;  indeed  he  admitted  it  himself. 
As  a  defense  his  lawyer  entered  the  plea 
of  insanity,  and  the  usual  number  of  medi- 
cal experts  pro  and  con  testified  at  the 
trial.  But  it  was  brought  out  that  the  ac- 
cused, who  spent  much  of  his  time  while 
in  jail  in  playing  euchre,  was  the  best 
player  in  the  place.  This  fact  so  impressed 
the  jury  (as  I  was  told  by  a  juryman  after- 
wards) that  it  outweighed  all  the  other  evi- 
dence. They  argued  that  the  man  was 
shamming;  that  any  man  who  could  play 
cards  so  well  "was  not  so  very  crazy/* 
And  yet  there  are  men  in  every  asylum — 
men  so  demented  that  no  jury  could  fail  to 
recognize  their  true  mental  condition — 
who  are  good  euchre  players. 

Card-playing,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  chief 
amusements   among  the  patients   of  the 
criminal  asylums.     From  morning  until 
32 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

night  groups  of  players  may  be  seen,  for- 
getful for  the  moment  of  delusions  and 
hallucinations  in  the  fascinations  of  the 
game.  It  is  because  of  this  induced  for- 
getfulness  that  the  hospital  authorities  en- 
courage card-playing  among  their  charges. 
It  is  curious  to  observe  how  habit  and 
past  experience  influence  the  players. 
Most  of  them  play  the  games  that  were 
familiar  to  them  in  their  rational  days, 
and  do  not  attempt  to  learn  new  ones.  In- 
deed a  large  percentage  of  the  players  are 
absolutely  incapable  of  learning  a  new 
game  at  all,  altho  they  may  play  an 
excellent  game  of  the  one  familiar  to  them. 
This  applies  particularly  to  the  simpler 
games  such  as  euchre — games  which  can 
be  played  mechanically,  and  do  not  re- 
quire the  tax  of  memory  necessary  to  play- 
ing such  a  game  as  whist.  But  even  some 
of  the  very  good  whist  players  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  learn  new  games.  Their  minds  run 
33 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

fairly  well  in  the  old  established  channels, 
but  rebel  at  taking  new  highways. 

An  example  of  how  firmly  the  mind  be- 
comes fixt  by  frequent  and  persistent 
repetitions,  and  how  much  like  a  machine 
it  becomes  under  these  circumstances,  is 
furnished  by  the  case  of  a  gambler  who 
was  a  patient  in  a  criminal  asylum.  In 
his  younger  days  the  man  had  been  an  ex- 
pert euchre  player,  which  game,  curiously 
enough,  was  the  one  he  played  in  gambling, 
instead  of  the  usual  poker.  When  he  came 
to  the  asylum  his  mind,  altho  crowded 
with  delusions,  was  still  keen  in  many 
ways.  Naturally  at  that  time  he  was  the 
crack  euchre  player  in  the  City,  and  he 
spent  hours  every  day  at  the  playing 
tables.  Little  by  little  his  mind  failed,  his 
keenness  of  thought  dulled,  until  at  last  he 
became  too  stupid  to  appreciate  any  but 
the  most  commonplace  things  about  him. 
He  seemed,  indeed,  an  automaton,  scarcely 
34 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

more  intelligent  than  the  mechanical  ones 
exhibited  in  museums.  And  yet,  even  in 
this  stage  of  dementia,  he  could  still  play 
an  excellent  game  of  euchre.  The  five 
cards  held  in  his  hand  seemed  to  touch 
some  responding  centers  in  his  brain  that 
were  still  open  to  impression,  open  to  those 
impressions,  at  least,  that  had  been  worn 
deepest  by  years  of  repetition.  Judged  by 
the  standard  of  his  card  playing  the  man 
was  a  responsible,  intelligent  being :  by  any 
other  standard  he  was  scarcely  higher 
than  many  of  the  lower  animals. 

But  newspaper  reading,  card  playing, 
ball  playing  and  the  like,  while  favorite 
amusements  in  the  City,  are  no  more  dis- 
tinctively characteristic  of  the  Walled  City 
than  of  other  cities  where  walls  are  un- 
necessary. There  are  some  other  ways  of 
passing  the  time,  however,  which  are  es- 
sentially characteristic  of  the  inhabitants. 

For  example,  one  sometimes  sees  a  pa- 
35 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

tient  engaged  in  vigorously  twisting  the 
rung  of  a  chair,  gripping  it  tightly,  twist- 
ing and  turning  it  with  his  hands,  until  the 
perspiration  starts.  Anon  he  varies  the 
performance  by  hooking  the  ends  of  his 
fingers  together,  pulling  hard  until  they 
relax  and  snap  apart  from  sheer  muscular 
exhaustion.  Or  he  may  stand  before  the 
bars  at  the  window,  grasping  a  pair  of 
them  between  thumb  and  finger-tips,  and 
twist  and  pull  as  if  he  would  break  the 
steel  with  his  digits. 

To  the  uninitiated  such  actions  are 
simply  the  freaks  of  an  insane  man.  But 
the  merest  tyro  on  the  ward,  if  you  ask 
him,  will  tell  you  that  the  man  is  vigor- 
ously exercising  the  muscles  of  his  fingers, 
keeping  them  strong  and  well  developed  so 
that  he  will  be  able  to  practise  his  profes- 
sion successfully  when  he  is  released.  His 
11  profession,"  if  you  please,  is  that  of 
pocket-picking  in  general,  and  watch- 
36 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

pocket-picking  in  particular.  If  his  fingers 
are  not  strong  he  will  find  some  difficulty 
in  deftly  extracting  the  watch  from  a 
pocket  and  in  "ringing"  it  with  one  hand, 
leaving  the  useless  ring  dangling  at  the 
end  of  the  chain.  And  so,  as  the  following 
of  his  trade  is  denied  him  temporarily,  he 
takes  the  means  that  we  have  seen  of  keep- 
ing in  condition  for  work  as  soon  as  the 
gates  of  the  City  are  opened  to  him. 

Not  quite  as  enigmatic  as  the  actions  of 
the  watch-ringing  man  are  those  of  another 
man  who  may  be  giving  a  kind  of  private 
performance  of  his  own  in  some  other  part 
of  the  hall.  This  man  is  apparently  a 
physical  culture  enthusiast.  He  hangs  by 
his  arms  from  a  convenient  cross  bar,  or  a 
door  frame,  or  even  the  bars  at  the  win- 
dow, drawing  himself  up  and  down  as 
many  times  as  he  can,  until  his  face  is 
purple  and  his  muscles  quiver.  Sometimes 
he  varies  this  performance  by  simply 
37 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

hanging  at  arm's  length  as  long  as  he  can, 
or  perhaps  hanging  by  each  hand  al- 
ternately. 

Possibly  you  may  venture  the  comment 
that  such  enthusiasm  in  exercising  is  very 
commendable ;  and  even  wonder  if  the  man 
is  a  believer  in  " health  foods,"  and  a  veg- 
etarian diet,  like  so  many  other  physical 
culturists.  If  you  inquire  of  the  man  him- 
self, however,  you  will  discover  that  physi- 
cal culture  is  not  merely  a  hobby  with  him. 
He  too  is  preparing  himself  for  the  prac- 
tise of  his  calling,  which  in  the  City  is  re- 
garded as  a  very  much  higher  one  than 
that  of  the  watch  ringer.  He  is  a  ' '  second- 
story  man" — the  burglar  who  must  earn 
his  living  by  clambering  laboriously  into 
second-story  windows,  since  an  unkind 
world  sees  fit  to  cover  its  windows  of  the 
lower  story  with  iron  bars.  The  results 
are  practically  the  same,  of  course,  but  the 
work  is  much  more  arduous ;  and  one  must 
38 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

have  his  climbing  muscles  in  the  very  best 
of  training.  As  this  can  be  done  only  by 
constant  exercise,  a  little  time  each  day  is 
given  over  from  the  too  ample  allowance 
of  the  City. 

This  " watch  ringer"  and  the  "second- 
story  man"  represent  the  active,  earnest 
type  of  citizens — men  who  give  much 
thought  to  to-morrow.  They  are  repre- 
sentative of  a  class;  but  there  are  other 
classes  far  less  strenuous,  who  let  the 
morrow  take  care  of  itself.  There  is  al- 
ways the  chronic  good-story  teller — the 
prototype  of  the  grocery-box  philosopher 
of  the  country  town — and  he  reels  off 
yarns  by  the  hour  when  he  can  find  listen- 
ers, as  usually  he  can.  Every  Walled  City 
has  some  of  these  who  are  the  "charac- 
ters" of  the  community,  and  "many  of 
their  stories  are  well  worth  listening  to. 
Indeed  this  same  story  teller  may  have 
earned  a  good  living  telling  these  same 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

stories   before   the    footlights  in   former 
days,  and  before  he  fell  into  evil  ways. 

I  knew  one  of  these  wags  by  the  name  of 
Jackson  who  acted  as  a  leaven  to  the  mirth 
of  the  whole  ward  wherever  he  was  stay- 
ing. He  had  been  a  Citizen  for  many 
years,  but  his  fund  of  stories  seemed  prac- 
tically inexhaustible;  and  he  had  the  fac- 
ulty of  giving  a  funny  twist  to  everything 
that  happened,  serious  or  otherwise.  The 
only  subject  that  appealed  to  him  seri- 
ously was  the  fact  that  he  was  kept  a  pris- 
oner. He  would  joke  about  it  occasionally, 
to  be  sure,  but  more  frequently  the  subject 
called  forth  his  choicest  sarcasms  and 
fiercest  vituperations.  His  shafts  were 
always  aimed  at  officers  of  the  law  in  gen- 
eral, and  the  various  officers  who  governed 
the  City  in  particular. 

When  a  new  patient  was  sent  in  to  the 
ward,  he  was  immediately  buttonholed  by 
Jackson. 

40 


SOCIAL    POSITION 

" What's  your  name!"  he  inquired  one 
day  of  a  new  Citizen. 

"John  Igo,"  the  newcomer  replied.    , 

' '  Igo  I ' '  queried  Jackson.  * '  How  do  you 
spell  it?" 

"I-g-o,"  was  the  reply. 

Jackson  thought  the  matter  over  for  a 
minute  and  then  said : 

"Young  fellow,  when  you've  been  here  a 
while  you'll  change  the  spellin'  of  that 
name.  Instead  of  spellin'  it  I-go,  you'll 
spell  it  I- stay." 

At  another  time  a  clergyman  who  was 
visiting  the  institution  and  had  noticed 
Jackson  asked  that  he  might  have  a  talk 
with  Tiim.  Accordingly  Jackson  was 
brought  in  to  the  superintendent's  office, 
and,  as  it  happened,  was  given  a  chair 
placed  between  the  clergyman  and  the  chief 
physician.  On  his  right  and  left,  there- 
fore, were  representatives  of  two  classes 
of  persons  whom  he  looked  upon  as  ene- 
41 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

mies  of  mankind;  and  one  of  Jackson 's 
peculiarities  was  that  he  never  allowed  an 
opportunity  to  pass  without  expressing  his 
opinion  in  the  -most  biting  way  possible. 
On  this  occasion  he  seated  himself,  crossed 
his  knees  and  folded  his  hands  in  his  lap 
and  announced  simply: 

1 1  Gentlemen,  I  am  a  better  man  than  the 
Saviour. ' ' 

"And  in  what  way?"  asked  the  clergy- 
man, innocently. 

"Why  like  this,"  said  Jackson,  turning 
from  right  to  left  and  looking  significantly 
at  the  men  seated  on  either  side  of  him; 
"The  Saviour  died  between  two  thieves, 
but  I'm  alive  and  a  settin'  here." 


Chapter  III 

LAW   AND    ORDER    IN    THE    WALLED 
CITY 


Chapter  III 

LAW   AND    ORDER   IN    THE   WALLED 
CITY 

Before  this  time  the  question  has  prob- 
ably arisen  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  How, 
then,  is  this  Walled  City — this  veritable 
den  of  thieves — controlled  and  governed. 
Since  most  of  the  inhabitants  are  crimi- 
nals, many  of  them  desperate  outlaws,  all 
thirsting  for  liberty,  how  can  such  a  city 
be  governed  by  a  handful  of  unarmed  men 
if  the  inmates  are  allowed  to  mingle  freely 
together? 

The  answer  is  simple.  And  yet,  to  those 
not  familiar  with  the  peculiarities  of  in- 
sane patients,  it  is  perhaps  more  incom- 
prehensible than  any  other  single  thing. 
45 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Here  is  a  ward  on  which  there  are  some 
seventy-five  criminals  under  the  care  of 
five  keepers,  unarmed  and  in  no  manner 
differently  equipped  from  their  patients, 
except  that  they  carry  keys.  Physically 
they  are  no  better  than  a  corresponding 
number  of  the  criminals.  Why  is  it  that 
some  half  dozen  of  the  desperate  inmates 
do  not  plan  a  concerted  attack,  secure  the 
keys  and  escape  ?  The  hope  of  gaining  his 
liberty  is  uppermost  in  the  mind  of  each 
and  everyone  of  the  seventy-five.  Noth- 
ing, not  even  murder  itself,  would  stand 
in  the  way  of  many  of  them  to  regain  it. 
And  yet  they  seldom  attempt  it,  rarely  ac- 
complish it.  But  why  not? 

The  answer  is  summed  up  in  the  fact 
that  these  men  are  insane;  but  this  re- 
quires explanation.  These  men  can  play 
cards  and  other  games,  read  and  enjoy 
newspapers,  perform  many  acts  requiring 
complicated  mental  effort.  To  the  casual 
46 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

observer  many  of  them  differ  mentally 
very  little  from  the  average  run  of  men  in 
the  common  walks  of  life  outside.  But 
nevertheless  they  are  different — very  dif- 
ferent. And  one  of  the  ways  in  which  this 
obscure  difference  is  shown  is  by  the  fact 
that  as  a  rule  they  cannot  act  in  concert, 
even  for  the  short  time  necessary  to  ac- 
complish their  dearest  wish. 

To  be  sure  the  atmosphere  of  rigid  dis- 
cipline is  all  about  them,  and  this  has  a 
restraining  effect;  but  this  only  explains 
the  situation  in  part.  Nor  is  it  a  lack  of 
imagination  or  effort  on  their  part,  for  in- 
dividually they  frequently  plan  and  exe- 
cute complicated  and  desperate  means  of 
escape.  But  when  any  number  of  them  at- 
tempt to  put  their  heads  together  and  plan 
a  general  concerted  movement,  their  in- 
sanity asserts  itself  and  usually  prevents 
success.  There  are  of  course  instances  of 
marked  exceptions,  as  we  shall  see  in  an- 
47 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

other  chapter,  but  as  a  general  thing  this 
condition  of  mind  is  usually  dominant. 

The  members  of  the  Walled  Cities, 
therefore,  resemble  the  Powers  in  Europe, 
in  that  they  cannot  agree  for  any  consider- 
able period  upon  any  important  point,  and 
are  too  distrustful  of  each  other  to  assert 
their  full  strength. 

It  must  not  be  understood  that  the  mere 
moral  effect  of  discipline  will  control  all 
insane  criminals;  but  it  is  certain  that  it 
influences  each  and  every  one  in  a  general 
way,  and  governs  their  actions  to  a  large 
extent.  It  frequently  happens  that  when 
a  new  inmate  arrives  he  has  carefully 
planned  means  of  fighting  his  way  to  lib- 
erty. Indeed  many  of  them  feign  insanity 
in  the  prisons  for  this  very  purpose.  But 
these  visions  usually  vanish  before  any 
serious  attempt  is  made  to  put  them  into 
effect.  The  new  surroundings  restrain 
them  and  distract  their  attention  for  a  few 
48 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

days,  and  by  that  time  they  have  discov- 
ered that  unseen  eyes  and  unknown  influ- 
ences are  acting  all  about  them  night  and 
day  to  hold  them  to  the  usual  routine  of 
the  institution.  Possibly  the  newcomer 
confides  to  a  fellow  criminal  his  deep  laid 
plans,  asks  his  connivance  perhaps.  But 
as  a  rule  he  gets  scant  encouragement 
from  this  source;  and  gradually  he  falls 
into  the  prevailing  habit  of  doing  what  he 
is  told  to  do. 

Now  and  again  the  new  man,  eager  to 
settle  his  scores  at  once,  makes  a  desper- 
ate break  for  liberty  almost  as  soon  as  he 
is  brought  in.  More  than  likely  he  is  in- 
cited to  action  by  the  apparent  weakness 
of  the  stronghold — five  unarmed  keepers, 
guarding  some  seventy  odd  criminals,  each 
of  whom  he  counts  as  a  friend,  because, 
like  him,  they  are  all  prisoners.  Under 
these  circumstances  he  may  attack  his 
guards,  possibly  calling  upon  his  comrades 
49 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

to  assist.  But  here  the  lack  of  the  power 
to  act  in  concert  asserts  itself.  In  the  mo- 
ment of  indecision  which  determines  the 
issue,  five  strong  pairs  of  arms,  guided  by 
five  normal  minds  that  can  act  quickly  and 
concertedly,  overpower  the  newcomer,  and 
the  opportunity  for  his  comrades  to  unite 
their  strength  is  lost. 

Blows  are  seldom  necessary  and  are  sel- 
dom given;  but  the  effect  upon  the  crimi- 
nal is  precisely  the  same  as  that  of  a  pom- 
meling in  the  outside  world.  He  would 
hesitate  to  attack  a  second  time  the  man 
who  has  mastered  him  once  outside;  and 
he  will  have  the  same  hesitation  about 
again  attacking  his  keepers  in  the  City. 

It  must  not  be  understood  that  blows  are 
never  struck  in  the  "Walled  City.  Blows 
must  be  struck  sometimes  even  in  the  best 
organized  communities,  much  as  we  may 
deplore  the  fact;  but  just  as  they  are  the 
exception  in  the  outside  world,  so  they  are 
50 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

in  asylums.  The  occasion  arises  from 
time  to  time,  however,  when  desperate 
fights  are  absolutely  unavoidable.  For 
altho  it  is  a,  criminal  act  to  strike  an  in- 
sane man  in  a  hospital,  no  man  is  sup- 
posed to  allow  himself  to  be  killed  without 
offering  every  resistance  in  his  power.  It 
is  these  occasional  cases  that  have  led  to 
the  popular  belief  in  the  constant  abuses 
of  inmates  in  hospitals. 

It  should  be  understood  that  punish- 
ment, as  such,  is  not  countenanced  or  al- 
lowed in  any  asylum.  The  man  who  is  so 
insane  that  he  must  be  confined  in  an 
asylum  is  not  responsible  for  his  actions 
and  should  not  be  punished  for  his  mis- 
deeds. His  restraint  is  not  forced  upon 
him  as  a  punishment,  but  for  the  good  of 
the  general  community.  And  the  cases  of 
occasional  pommelings  that  occur  in  asy- 
lums are  usually  those  where  the  attendant 
is  obliged  to  act  in  self-defense. 
51 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  sometimes  a 
man  is  afflicted  with  an  unusual  amount 
of  "cussedness"  as  well  as  insanity.  In 
cases  where  the  cussedness  developed  first 
it  requires  a  long  training  and  a  great 
amount  of  forbearance  and  self-control  on 
the  part  of  the  keeper  to  excuse  all  the 
culprit's  actions  on  the  ground  of  his  in- 
sanity. I  have  in  mind  a  case  in  point,  the 
peculiar  outcome  of  which  makes  it  worth 
relating. 

The  man  in  question  came  into  the 
criminal  asylum  charged  with  the  crime  of 
assaulting  an  officer.  He  was  a  large, 
raw-boned,  surly  fellow,  who  began  mak- 
ing trouble  almost  as  soon  as  he  came  into 
the  ward.  Before  twenty-four  hours  had 
passed  he  had  had  three  "set-tos"  with 
other  patients,  winning  all  three,  and 
proving  himself  a  game  fighter — quite  the 
unexpected  with  this  type  of  man.  When 
not  wandering  about  "looking  for  trou- 
52 


DORMITORY  AND  LIBRARY  IN  THE  DANNEMORA  (N.  Y.) 
STATE  HOSPITAL 

Courtesy  of  Dr.  Charles  H.  North 


DAY  ROOM  AND  MACHINE  SHOP  IN  THE  HOSPITAL  AT 
OVERBROOK.  N.  J. 

Courtesy  of  Dr.  C.  Payne 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

ble"  as  the  attendant  put  it,  he  sat  sul- 
lenly in  a  corner. 

So  far  he  had  confined  his  pugilistic  at- 
tention to  his  fellow  convicts,  but  it  was 
evident  that  it  would  be  only  a  matter  of 
time  until  he  would  be  reaching  out  and 
attacking  his  keepers.  Indeed  when  I 
spoke  to  him  about  his  actions  he  made  no 
bones  of  it,  assuring  me  that  he  would  "do 
anyone  he  cared  to,"  myself  included. 
Such  threats  were  not  uncommon,  even 
among  really  very  harmless  patients,  who 
usually  take  out  their  spite  entirely  in 
talk;  but  this  man  had  proved  himself  an 
actor  as  well  as  a  talker;  and  what  im- 
prest me  most  of  all  was  the  fact  that 
the  head  attendant  seemed  to  believe  that 
the  man  meant  what  he  said.  As  a  head 
attendant  in  such  a  place  usually  under- 
stands the  character  of  his  charges,  I  gave 
the  matter  serious  consideration,  altho  for 
the  moment  there  was  nothing  that  I  could 
53 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

do  but  await  developments,  and  hope  the 
trouble  would  blow  over. 

The  following  morning  the  attendant 
spoke  to  me  again  about  the  matter,  and 
I  could  see  that  his  patience  was  being 
sorely  tried. 

"It's  about  come  to  this,"  he  told  me. 
"Either  Carson  (the  patient)  is  going  to 
run  this  ward,  or  else  /  am.  Both  of  us 
thinks  it's  him  that's  going  to  do  it,  and 
I'm  afraid  there's  going  to  be  a  lot  of 
trouble. ' ' 

In  my  own  mind  I  had  no  doubt  as  to 
who  would  run  that  ward.  Carson  was  a 
powerful  man  and  a  good  fighter;  indeed 
he  was  practically  "boss  of  the  ward,"  as 
far  as  the  patients  went,  at  that  moment. 
But  I  had  faith  in  that  particular  head  at- 
tendant— quiet,  pleasant,  always  kind  to  his 
men ;  but  square- jawed,  well-knit,  and  quite 
able  to  take  care  of  himself  in  any  com- 
pany. I  knew  also  that  he  would  do  noth- 
54 


LAW   AND    ORDER 

ing  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  and 
would  avoid  trouble  if  possible. 

It  was  a  difficult  situation.  I  believed 
that  nothing  short  of  a  good  thrashing 
would  do  Carson  any  good,  for  his  actions 
seemed  more  the  result  of  " ugliness"  than 
insanity.  He  was  insane,  but  he  was  also 
a  domineering  bully,  and  had  been  one 
before  he  became  insane.  But,  as  I  have 
said,  punishment  of  any  kind  is  discoun- 
tenanced, and  very  properly  so,  even  in 
criminal  asylums.  So,  after  trying  to  show 
Carson  the  folly  of  his  actions,  I  warned 
the  keeper  not  to  allow  himself  to  get  into 
a  fight,  which  would  mean  discharge  from 
the  institution  and  possible  arrest  if  he 
struck  the  man. 

The  following  afternoon,  as  I  was  pass- 
ing under  Carson's  window,  he  called  to 
me  and  asked  to  speak  with  me  in  the 
ward.  As  soon  as  I  came  inside  the  door 
I  could  see  that  something  had  happened. 
55 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Carson  was  no  longer  bully  and  cock-of- 
the-walk.  He  was  a  beaten  man,  or  I  never 
saw  one.  He  said  himself  that  he  was— 
was  afraid  that  he  was  going  to  die,  in 
fact,  from  the  beating  that  the  head  at- 
tendant had  given  him. 

The  charge  against  the  attendant  was 
of  course  a  most  serious  one,  and  I  there- 
fore summoned  the  man  and  questioned 
him.  He  admitted  that  he  had  had  a 
"little  tussle"  with  Carson  but  suggested 
that  if  there  had  really  been  the  serious 
injury  that  Carson  claimed,  there  would 
surely  be  some  evidence  of  it  in  bruises 
and  possibly  broken  bones.  Acting  on  this 
suggestion  I  stript  the  patient  and  ex- 
amined him  carefully,  but  I  was  unable  to 
find  any  signs  of  injury  except  a  small 
lump  on  the  point  of  the  jaw,  which  he 
might  have  received  in  any  one  of  the 
numerous  fights  he  had  had  with  other  pa- 
tients. The  case  against  the  attendant  was 
56 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

not  established,  and  was  recorded  as  one 
of  the  numerous  exaggerated  charges  con- 
stantly being  made  against  the  keepers  by 
patients  in  these  hospitals. 

One  thing  was  certain,  however:  from 
that  day  on  Carson  was  a  changed  man. 
He  conducted  himself  properly  at  all  times 
in  the  halls,  grew  more  cheerful,  became 
the  best  of  friends  with  the  head  atten- 
dant, and  was  discharged  six  months  later 
as  cured.  At  the  time  of  his  leaving  the 
institution  he  took  particular  pains  to  tell 
me  how  much  he  thought  of  the  attendant, 
considering  him  "the  best  friend  he  ever 
had, "  as  he  said. 

Some  years  later,  when  the  affair  had 
drifted  out  of  my  mind,  I  ran  across  Car- 
son on  a  street  in  New  York.  After  the 
usual  exchange  of  greetings  he  asked  me  if 
I  had  ever  heard  the  true  story  of  the  al- 
leged beating  he  had  once  received.  As  I 
had  not,  he  told  me  what  I  have  no  reason 
57 


THE  WALLED   CITY 

to  doubt  was  an  accurate  account  of  the 
transaction. 

It  seems  that  the  attendant,  driven  to 
desperation  by  the  exasperating  conduct 
of  Carson,  had  taken  him  upstairs  into  a 
small  dormitory,  locking  the  door  from  the 
inside  and  leaving  the  key  in  the  lock.  The 
beds  had  been  pushed  back,  leaving  a  clear 
space,  perhaps  fifteen  feet  square,  in  the 
middle.  In  this  space  lay  a  pair  of  boxing 
gloves  which  the  attendant  proceeded  to 
pull  on,  telling  Carson  to  strip  and  get 
ready  for  a  "good  swift  fight,"  as  Carson 
put  it. 

"Now  young  fellow/'  the  keeper  con- 
tinued, * '  either  you  are  going  to  get  licked, 
or  I  am.  Both  of  us  can't  run  that  ward, 
that 'sail." 

Carson  jumped  at  the  chance.    He  was 

bigger,  and  he  believed  stronger  than  the 

keeper,  and  until  that  time  had  never  been 

whipt  in  his  life.     Furthermore  he  was 

58 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

bare  fisted  while  the  keeper  wore  the  box- 
ing gloves — for  what  reason  Carson  did 
not  find  out  until  later.  But  when  the  fight 
began  the  scales  fell  from  his  eyes.  For 
the  attendant,  it  seems,  was  a  crack  boxer. 
Rush  and  swing,  jab,  upper-cut,  bite,  or 
butt,  as  Carson  would,  he  could  not  reach 
his  man.  And  meanwhile  he  was  receiving 
a  steady  pommeling  over  the  solar  plexus 
and  on  the  neck — in  places  that  counted, 
but  where  the  blows  left  no  mark.  In  five 
minutes  he  had  been  knocked  down  as 
many  times,  and  a  final  swing  on  the 
"point"  put  him  down  and  out.  The  next 
thing  he  remembered  was  the  attendant 
standing  over  him,  smiling  and  asking  if 
he  had  had  enough.  He  had. 

It  was  that  evening  that  he  had  com- 
plained to  me  about  his  beating.  And 
when  he  had  attempted  to  prove  his  case 
by  showing  his  bruises  he  realized  why  the 
attendant  had  worn  gloves,  and  why  he  had 
59 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

aimed  his  blows  so  persistently  at  his 
stomach  and  neck.  Soft  gloves  against 
soft  tissues  left  no  tell-tale  marks. 

From  Carson's  point  of  view  his  posi- 
tion was  hopeless.  Here  was  a  man  who 
could  whip  him  any  time  he  pleased,  and 
from  whom  there  was  no  getting  redress. 
But  the  general  effect,  curiously  enough, 
was  to  be  most  beneficial.  Now  for  the 
first  time  he  was  obliged  to  govern  his 
heretofore  uncontrollable  temper  that  had 
been  getting  him  into  trouble  all  his  life. 
As  a  result  he  grew  better  mentally  day  by 
day,  and  came  to  look  upon  his  conqueror 
as  a  true  benefactor. 

"I  had  been  needing  that  licking  all  my 
life,"  he  said,  "and  if  someone  had  given 
it  to  me  ten  years  before  I  got  it  I  should 
never  have  been  either  a  lunatic  or  a  con- 
vict. ' '  In  this  particular  instance  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  the  man  was  right, 
and  that  remedy  was  a  good  one. 
60 


LAW    AND    ORDER 

But  this  entirely  unusual  case  of  Car- 
son 's  must  not  be  taken  as  illustrating  the 
method  of  governing  the  inhabitants 
within  our  Walled  City,  any  more  than  the 
occasional  clubbing  of  a  citizen  by  a  po- 
liceman is  the  method  of  governing  outside 
cities.  Cases  of  clubbings  do  occur — neces- 
sary cases,  and  absolutely  unavoidable 
ones — in  the  best  governed  cities:  and 
cases  of  severe  punishments,  necessary 
and  unavoidable,  do  occur  in  the  Walled 
City.  But  most  citizens  of  either  com- 
munities never  have  to  be  clubbed.  The 
influence  of  the  law,  felt  and  appreciated 
unconsciously,  acts  in  practically  the  same 
manner  in  controlling  the  insane  criminal 
as  it  does  in  controlling  the  average  good 
citizen.  The  difference  is  that  the  one 
must  know  that  there  is  a  wall  around  him 
with  the  uniformed  representatives  of  the 
law  always  in  sight,  whereas  the  other  can 
do  without  these  obtrusive  evidences. 
61 


Chapter  IV 
THE  CITIZENS  AT  PLAY 


Chapter  IV 
THE   CITIZENS  AT  PLAY 

Those  who  do  not  believe  in  the  bene- 
ficial effects  of  such  forms  of  amusements 
as  theaters,  concerts,  and  stage  entertain- 
ments in  general,  will  find  food  for 
thought  in  the  fact  that  such  entertain- 
ments are  considered  among  the  most 
beneficial  forms  of  treatment  for  insanity. 
Every  institution  for  treating  mental  dis- 
eases has  its  hall  for  holding  theatricals, 
some  of  these  halls  being  good-sized  the- 
aters, quite  as  completely  equipped  as  the 
ordinary  city  opera  houses.  The  Walled 
City  has  its  amusement  hall  like  the  rest, 
and  a  well-patronized  hall  it  is. 

The  kinds  of  entertainments  given  in 
65 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

these  asylum  amusement  halls  range  from 
the  regular  home-talent  concerts,  given  at 
stated  intervals,  to  complete  plays,  and 
even  grand  operas,  given  by  professional 
troupes.  Frequently  the  professionals 
give  their  performance  for  charity's  sake, 
and  for  the  novelty  of  acting  before  an 
audience  of  insane  criminals.  '  Usually 
they  find,  greatly  to  their  surprise,  that 
their  audiences  behave  no  differently  from 
the  average  audience  outside,  except  per- 
haps that  they  are  a  little  more  apprecia- 
tive and  enthusiastic.  Occasionally,  how- 
ever startling  things  happen. 

At  the  time  when  moving  pictures  first 
came  into  popularity  a  vaudeville  troupe 
having  a  picture  machine  gave  an  enter- 
tainment at  a  well-known  criminal  institu- 
tion. The  orchestra  at  this  institution  was 
a  large  one  of  about  fifteen  instruments, 
most  of  the  musicians  being  inmates  of  the 
place.  Among  them  was  a  young  man 
66 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

named  Martin  who  was  serving  a  twenty- 
year  sentence  for  arson.  At  the  time  of  his 
trial  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  prove 
that  burning  things  was  an  insane  ten- 
dency with  Martin — that  since  childhood 
he  had  always  had  an  irresistible  desire 
to  play  with  fire.  But  the  young  man  him- 
self had  stoutly  denied  the  allegation, 
altho  he  knew  that  an  admission  might 
save  him  from  prison.  Under  the  circum- 
stances, therefore,  he  was  convicted  and 
given  a  long-term  sentence.  But  after  be- 
ing in  the  prison  for  a  few  months  he  had 
developed  unmistakable  signs  of  insanity, 
and  had  been  transferred  to  the  Walled 
City,  where  he  had  proved  useful,  and 
obedient,  as  well  as  intelligent.  At  the 
time  of  the  advent  of  the  moving  picture 
machine,  he  was  playing  first  violin  in  the 
orchestra. 

It  happened  that  among  the  other  pic- 
tures shown  by  the  operator  on  this  oc- 
67 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

casion  was  the  familiar  one  of  a  New  York 
fire,  with  the  engines  rushing  to  the  scene, 
the  building  with  the  flames  bursting  from 
the  windows,  and  the  exciting  rescues  by 
the  firemen.  To  make  the  scene  still  more 
realistic  some  members  of  the  troupe  be- 
hind the  scenes  clanged  gongs  and  shouted 
at  the  appropriate  times,  making  the  per- 
formance thrilling  and  realistic. 

While  the  earlier  pictures  were  being 
shown  Martin  had  sat  with  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  orchestra,  his  violin  on  his 
knee,  thoroughly  enjoying  the  program. 
But  when  the  fire-scene  was  flashed  upon 
the  canvas  there  was  a  transformation. 
The  long-supprest  fiend  within  him  as- 
serted itself  with  overpowering  mastery. 
As  the  horses  and  smoking  engines  dashed 
by,  Martin  started  from  his  chair,  letting 
his  violin  fall  to  the  floor.  For  a  moment 
he  stood  with  eyes  bulging  and  glittering 
with  excitement  and  then  as  the  scene 
68 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

shifted  to  the  burning  building,  with  the 
alluring  flames  licking  up  from  the  win- 
dows, he  gave  a  scream,  leapt  over  the 
foot-light  screen,  and  made  a  wild  dash  for 
the  canvas.  What  might  have  followed 
can  only  be  surmised,  for  at  that  instant 
the  operator  turned  off  the  pictures,  leav- 
ing poor  Martin  standing  dazed  before  the 
empty  curtain.  For  an  instant  he  gazed 
helplessly  about  him,  and  then,  as  he  re- 
alized what  had  happened,  he  collapsed 
completely.  So,  also,  did  several  members 
of  the  troupe  in  the  wings. 

This  impromptu  exhibition  of  Martin's 
set  at  rest  any  doubts  that  existed  as  to 
his  pyre-maniac  tendencies.  And  on  his 
part  he  could  no  longer  deny  his  peculi- 
arity. He  confessed  that  it  had  been 
growing  upon  him  since  childhood,  gradu- 
ally increasing  until  it  was  now  entirely 
beyond  his  control.  He  was  so  ashamed  of 
his  abnormality  that  he  would  never  admit 
69 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

it,  although  his  parents  had  long  suspected 
it.  At  first,  as  a  child,  the  fire  in  the 
kitchen  range  had  had  a  strange  fascina- 
tion to  him — just  as  it  has  for  most  chil- 
dren— only  slightly  exaggerated.  This 
fascination  increased,  and  with  it  the  de- 
sire to  set  fire  to  everything  about  him, 
regardless  of  consequences,  until  at  last  it 
led  him  to  commit  the  crime  for  which  he 
was  finally  convicted.  He  knew  very  well 
at  his  trial  that  if  he  had  chosen  to  tell  his 
story  he  would  probably  escape  severe 
punishment,  for  there  was  no  motive  in 
his  crime.  But  he  felt  that,  even  if  he  did 
escape,  his  ungovernable  impulse  would 
eventually  get  him  into  prison — perhaps 
even  the  death  chamber — and  he  had  be- 
come tired  of  fighting  against  his  peculiar 
mental  obliquity. 

Martin's  case  was  one  of  the  most  piti- 
able I  have  ever  known.  Here  was  a  bright 
young  man,  honest,  upright,  and  straight- 
70 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

forward,  whose  only  affliction  took  such  a 
form  as  to  make  him  perhaps  the  most 
dangerous  enemy  to  society,  and  doomed 
him  to  eke  out  a  miserable  existence 
among  creatures  abhorrent  to  him  in  every 
way. 

But  we  are  wandering  far  afield  from 
our  subject  of  entertainments  within  the 
Walled  City. 

The  most  picturesque  of  these,  of  course, 
are  those  given  by  the  Citizens  themselves, 
where  the  various  qualities  of  home  talent 
are  brought  out.  Most  of  these,  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  are  commonplace,  altho 
there  is  occasionally  something  that  is 
strikingly  good. 

And  here  let  me  pause  and  say  a  few 
brief  words  in  behalf  of  the  " manager"  of 
the  theatrical  "talent"  in  the  Walled  City. 
Other  managers  of  theatrical  folk  outside 
have  no  path  of  roses;  but  picture  if  you 
can  the  trials  of  the  man  who  attempts  to 
71 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

stage  a  production  where  the  "talent"  is 
composed  of  insane  criminals.  When  in 
addition  to  all  the  whims  and  caprices 
common  to  stage  people, — vanity,  pride, 
jealousies, — you  add  delusions,  hallucina- 
tions, and  criminal  instincts,  some  idea 
may  be  had  of  the  martyrdom  to  which  the 
unknown  Walled  City  theatrical  manager 
is  condemned. 

His  easiest  task  is  when  a  home-talent 
"concert"  is  to  be  given.  Then  he  has 
simply  to  go  through  his  list  of  people 
who  can  (and  will)  sing  or  dance,  those 
who  can  recite  or  tell  stories,  those  who 
know  some  acrobatic  or  other  "stunts," 
etc.,  make  out  his  program,  and  await  the 
time  for  the  curtain.  But  even  in  this 
relatively  simple  task  he  must  use  discre- 
tion and  tact.  There  are  some  time-hon- 
ored performers,  even  in  the  City,  who 
cannot  be  lightly  ignored.  For  example, 
in  one  institution  with  which  I  was  fa- 
72 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

miliar  there  was  a  well-known  character 
who  always  appeared  on  the  program  of 
every  entertainment  and  rendered  a 
"piano  solo."  For  years  it  had  been  the 
custom  for  Eddie  Hawkins  to  play  the 
piano  once  at  every  concert.  Not  only  to 
play  at  each  concert,  but  always  to  play 
the  identical  tune,  "The  Frolic  of  the 
Frogs  Waltz," — the  only  "concert  tune" 
he  knew. 

Had  he  been  omitted  by  any  chance 
from  any  program  he  would  have  started 
an  open  revolt  among  the  "talent"  that 
would  have  cleared  the  stage  of  every  per- 
former in  the  place.  For  while  Eddie's 
defects  as  a  pianist  were  easily  recognized 
by  the  audiences — who,  by  the  way,  knew 
the  "real  thing"  from  "rot"  as  they  called 
it — Eddie  was  such  a  favorite  personally 
with  all  the  Citizens,  and  his  peculiar  pride 
in  his  one  tune  and  his  obtuseness  to  the 
true  situation  regarding  it  were  such,  that 
73 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

everyone  would  have  rebelled  at  a  pro- 
gram that  omitted  it. 

Eddie's  "Frolic  of  the  Frogs"  came  to 
be  like  the  benediction  after  the  sermon: 
nobody  listened  to  it,  but  everyone  would 
have  missed  it  if  it  hadn't  been  there. 

At  the  proper  point  in  the  evening's  per- 
formance the  manager  would  solemnly  an- 
nounce : 

"A  piano  solo,  'The  Frolic  of  the  Frogs,' 
by  Mr.  Eddie  Hawkins. ' ' 

And  then  Eddie  would  appear  from  the 
flies,  bow  seriously,  adjust  the  piano  stool 
and  play  his  "solo."  He  always  received 
an  encore,  always  returned  and  repeated 
the  "trio"  part  of  the  waltz,  and  again 
solemnly  bowed  himself  off  the  stage. 

Sometimes  a  new  manager  would  try  to 
remedy  things  by  having  Eddie  learn  a 
new  "solo"  from  time  to  time,  since  he 
must  be  on  the  program.  But  herein  lay 
the  difficulty:  Eddie  couldn't  learn  new 
74 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

pieces.  Like  the  card  players  referred  to 
a  few  pages  back,  he  could  remember 
pieces  learned  years  before,  but  was  no 
longer  capable  of  committing  new  ones  to 
memory. 

Usually  the  colored  members  of  the 
Walled  City  community  are  about  the 
most  satisfactory  and  enthusiastic  stage 
performers.  The  inordinate  vanity  of 
some  of  these  men,  and  the  means  they 
will  devise  to  get  themselves  before  the 
footlights,  are  amazing.  One  man,  named 
Sam  Gilmore,  who  had  once  been  a  regu- 
lar performer,  but  whose  single  accom- 
plishment of  dancing  had  at  last  worn  out 
its  attraction,  on  hearing  that  he  had  been 
omitted  from  the  program  of  a  special  per- 
formance that  was  to  be  given  two  nights 
running  for  the  benefit  of  some  visitors  in 
the  neighboring  town,  came  to  the  man- 
ager and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  do  a  "fire- 
eating  act."  He  said  that  it  was  an  old 
75 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

accomplishment  of  his  and  promised  to 
create  a  sensation  by  his  performance. 
All  he  required  was  some  cotton,  a  candle, 
and  a  chance  to  get  before  the  audience. 
As  this  act  was  a  decided  novelty,  he  was 
put  on  the  program. 

When  it  came  time  for  his  act  Sam  ap- 
peared bowing  and  scraping  with  a  wad  of 
cotton  as  big  as  his  fist  in  one  hand,  and  a 
candle  in  the  other.  Tearing  off  a  piece 
of  cotton  the  size  of  his  thumb  he  would 
light  it  at  the  candle,  and  then  while  in  full 
blaze  cram  it  into  his  mouth,  and  pretend 
to  swallow  it  with  great  relish.  His  per- 
formance was  received  with  proper  en- 
thusiasm by  the  audience,  which  inspired 
the  colored  man  to  such  a  pitch  of  excite- 
ment that  he  tore  off  bigger  and  bigger 
pieces,  thrusting  them  into  his  mouth  with 
the  flames  curling  about  his  lips  and  nose. 
When  he  finally  finished  his  exhibition  and 
came  into  the  wings  radiant  with  success, 
76 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

his  cheeks  were  bulging  with  charred  cot- 
ton. 

When  time  came  for  the  performance 
the  following  night  Sam  was  on  hand 
eager  for  his  act.  But  one  of  the  phy- 
sicians, happening  to  stop  to  speak  to  him 
in  the  wings,  noticed  that  his  speech  was 
thick;  and,  taking  him  to  a  light,  found 
that  his  nose,  lips,  tongue,  and  mouth 
were  burned  to  a  blister.  He  must  have 
been  in  great  pain,  and,  as  was  found  later, 
had  been  unable  to  eat  anything  all  day; 
and  yet  he  was  willing  to  go  on  and  repeat 
his  performance.  Not  only  willing  but  so 
eager  to  do  so  that  he  wept  and  was  in- 
consolable when  it  was  forbidden  him.  No 
pain  and  suffering  were  too  great  when 
the  reward  was  to  be  the  coveted  applause 
of  his  mates. 

It  developed  afterwards  that  Sam 
knew  nothing  whatever  of  the  trick  of 
''fire  eating."  He  had  simply  thought  of 
77 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

this  means  of  getting  on  the  program,  and 
was  willing  to  sacrifice  anything  to  ac- 
complish that  end. 

Another  colored  performer  in  the  same 
City  was  a  clever  buck-and-wing  dancer, 
named  Noah  Roberts.  Like  Sam,  he  had 
been  a  regular  performer  for  years,  his 
good  dancing  and  his  grotesque  contor- 
tions being  a  perennial  source  of  amuse- 
ment. His  exhibition  was  not  of  the 
stereotyped  variety,  as  he  always  intro- 
duced some  novel,  startling,  and  amusing 
feature  into  each  performance.  The  only 
thing  that  he  insisted  on  as  remaining  fixt 
and  unchangeable  was  the  tune  played  by 
the  orchestra.  This  he  insisted  should  al- 
ways be  the  same  old-time  familiar  jig, 
and  without  variations  or  flourishes.  Fre- 
quently the  orchestra  leader  remonstrated, 
pointing  out  that  a  new  tune  played  in  the 
same  kind  of  time  would  answer  quite  as 
well,  and  lend  variety.  But  Noah  was  ob- 
78 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

durate ;  it  must  be  his  own  tune,  or  there 
would  be  no  dance. 

As  Noah  was  the  antithesis  of  obstinacy 
in  all  other  things  the  orchestra  leader 
was  puzzled  over  the  matter.  Finally  he 
made  the  discovery  that  the  colored  man 
had  become  very  deaf, — an  affliction  that 
he  would  not  acknowledge  and  strove  to 
conceal.  It  seemed  clear  that  his  reason 
for  insisting  on  having  the  one  tune  played 
had  something  definite  to  do  with  his  deaf- 
ness, but  in  just  what  way  was  not  appar- 
ent, since  in  any  event  he  could  not  hear 
the  music.  By  carefully  watching  the 
negro  during  the  rehearsals,  however,  the 
leader  discovered  that  while  dancing  Noah 
never  took  his  eyes  off  the  first  violinist ; — 
that,  indeed  he  was  not  dancing  to  the 
music  but  to  the  time  of  the  violinist's 
bow,  which  in  case  of  the  particular  jig  in 
question  marked  the  time  perfectly.  Evi- 
dently if  the  violins  stopped  playing,  al- 
79 


THE  WALLED   CITY 

lowing  the  air  to  be  carried  by  such  instru- 
ments as  the  clarionet  or  flute,  Noah  could 
not  follow  the  time. 

The  orchestra  leader  said  nothing  of  his 
discovery,  but  he  determined  to  have  some 
fun  at  the  negro's  expense.  He  arranged 
the  music  so  that  the  wind  instruments 
should  carry  the  air,  and  instructed  the 
first  violinist  to  play  a  special  contralto 
part  of  long  notes  and  rests  that  would  give 
no  indication  of  the  time  by  the  motions  of 
the  bow. 

When  the  next  time  came  for  Noah's 
dance  the  orchestra  struck  up  the  old  fa- 
miliar tune,  and  the  negro,  gorgeously  ar- 
rayed, took  his  place  ready  to  dance,  his 
face  wreathed  in  an  ebony  smile.  He 
poised  on  one  foot  watching  the  violinists 
for  a  moment,  his  smile  relaxed  a  little, 
he  waited  a  moment  more — but  he  did  not 
begin  dancing.  Several  times  he  nodded 
vigorously  to  the  violinist,  and  when  no 
80 


I 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

response  came  he  leaned  over  and  said 
blandly : 

"Misto  fiddler,  will  you  please  play, 
sahf" 

Since  all  this  time  the  orchestra  had 
been  roaring  out  the  tune,  apparently  the 
same  as  ever,  the  audience  regarded  this 
as  one  of  Noah's  variations  to  his  regular 
performance,  and  began  to  laugh.  Noah 
on  his  part  was  sorely  puzzled.  After  re- 
peating his  request  a  second  time  and 
waiting  a  moment  for  the  response,  he 
finally  broke  into  his  dance,  regardless  of 
time.  It  was  a  weird  performance — one  of 
the  most  fetching  he  had  ever  done,  had  he 
but  known  it.  Here  was  the  negro  furi- 
ously slap-slapping  the  boards  in  one  kind 
of  time,  while  the  orchestra  played  an- 
other. To  anyone  but  a  deaf  person  it  was 
a  thing  almost  impossible  to  do,  and  the 
audience  showed  its  appreciation  of  it  by 
vigorous  applause  and  peals  of  laughter. 
81 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

This  was  the  last  straw;  for  Noah  sup- 
posed that  they  were  jeering  at  him.  With 
his  face  even  a  deeper  ebony  color  with 
rage  he  stopped  dancing,  leaned  over  the 
foot-lights,  and  shouted  at  the  violinist: 

"Look  a  heah,  Misto  fiddler,  you  play, 
or  I  stop  dancin'!" 

And  when  the  violinist  kept  serenely  on 
with  the  timeless  bowing,  the  enraged 
negro  flounced  off  the  stage. 

It  was  pronounced  by  the  audience  the 
best  "take  off"  performance  Noah  had 
ever  given,  and  they  applauded  it  roundly. 
But  poor  Noah  didn't  know  this.  He  was 
sulking  in  the  dressing  room,  too  deaf  to 
hear  what  was  happening  outside. 

But  it  isn't  always  the  performers  who 
have  the  jokes  played  on  them.  Some- 
times it  is  the  manager.  Or  again  the 
actors  play  doubtful  and  sometimes  dan- 
gerous practical  jokes  on  each  other, 
which  must  be  winked  at  within  certain 
82 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

limits,  particularly  if  the  participants  are 
star  performers. 

A  very  popular  form  of  entertainment 
is  a  play,  or  sketch,  that  has  been  written 
or  "arranged"  by  some  aspiring  Citizen- 
playwright.  Usually  such  plays  are  mod- 
eled on  some  of  the  familiar  old-time 
dramas  perverted  to  suit  the  taste  of  the 
playwright  or  the  audience.  Dramatic 
acts  and  situations  are  always  at  a  pre- 
mium in  these  plays,  but  by  all  means  the 
most  popular  of  these  acts  is  where  some- 
body, hero  or  villain,  it  makes  little  differ- 
ence, gets  a  chance  to  shoot,  stab,  or  slug 
a  policeman.  For  be  it  said  to  the  credit 
of  the  blue-coated  city  protectors  that  they 
are  the  most  thoroughly  hated  of  any  class 
of  persons  in  the  world  by  the  Walled  City 
inhabitants. 

Whenever  it  is  possible  a  policeman  is 
introduced  as  one  of  the  charaters  in  these 
home-made  City  plays;  and  in  some  part 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

of  the  performance  lie  is  sure  to  come  in 
for  a  drubbing,  at  least.  The  villain  "lays 
for  him"  in  some  dark  corner,  or  some 
other  dire  calamity  happens  to  him,  to  the 
infinite  delight  of  the  audience.  In  one 
particular  play,  where  the  hero  was  to 
knock  out  the  officer  with  a  well  aimed 
"left  swing,"  the  part  was  acted  so  vig- 
orously and  realistically  by  the  hero  that 
the  manager  found  great  difficulty  in  find- 
ing anyone  to  take  the  part  of  the  police- 
man. For  the  hated  blue  uniform  inspired 
the  hero  with  such  real  hatred  that  the 
"wallop"  he  gave  was  not  the  regulation 
1 '  stage  wallop ' '  at  all,  and  no  one  cared  to 
take  chances  on  the  probability  of  his  for- 
getting himself  at  the  final  performance. 

In  another  of  these  home  talent  melo- 
dramatic performances  arranged  by  a  Cit- 
izen-playwright, the  man  who  took  the 
part  of  the  hero  had  made  himself  par- 
ticularly disliked,  not  only  by  the  rest  of 
84 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

the  company,  but  by  almost  every  other 
person  in  the  place,  although  the  manager 
did  not  know  it.  In  one  act  of  the  play 
this  hero  was  to  fight  a  "duel"  with  box- 
ing gloves,  to  vindicate  his  own  honor  and 
that  of  the  inevitable  down-trodden  fe- 
male. In  the  rehearsals  his  opponent  had 
been  the  regulation  villain  of  the  plot, 
whom  he  knocked  out  according  to  precon- 
certed arrangement.  On  the  night  of  the 
performance,  however,  some  of  the  con- 
spirators secreted  in  the  dressing  room  a 
bona  fide  pugilist,  who  was  a  patient  on 
one  of  the  wards,  until  the  boxing  act  was 
to  come.  Then  this  real  pugilist  appeared 
in  the  extemporized  ring  in  place  of  the 
regular  villain.  And  the  walloping  that 
he  gave  the  poor  hero,  who  was  supposed 
to  be  walloping  him  all  the  time,  will  go 
down  in  that  Walled  City's  stage  history 
as  one  of  its  most  satisfactory  events.  All 
the  scores  that  the  troupe  had  against  that 
85 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

hero  were  settled  in  full  by  the  "pug" 
then  and  there. 

Afterward  the  pugilist  had  to  settle  with 
the  manager,  of  course.  But  that  was  com- 
paratively easy.  And  the  pleasure  of  lam- 
basting the  hated  hero  before  five  hundred 
of  his  associates  was  sufficient  compensa- 
tion for  any  punishment  that  might  fol- 
low, which  at  most  would  be  only  the  with- 
drawal of  certain  privileges. 

But  such  things  as  these  are  really  the 
minor  forms  of  difficulties  with  which  the 
manager  has  to  contend.  His  real  diffi- 
culties come  in  when  such  things  as  sud- 
den attacks  of  epilepsy  or  maniacal  excite- 
ment develop  among  the  performers. 
Fortunately  his  audiences  are  lenient  in 
their  criticism  of  these  particular  things. 
The  experience  of  one  manager  with  an 
untried  star  performer  illustrates  the  em- 
barrassing situations  that  sometimes  arise. 

Because  of  the  lack  of  local  talent,  the 
86 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

season  had  been  a  particularly  annoying 
one  to  the  manager,  who  was  one  of  the 
young  doctors  on  the  medical  staff.  The 
result  was  that  most  of  the  entertainments 
had  been  of  a  mediocre  grade.  But  one 
day  there  came  to  the  institution  a  young 
man  who  claimed  to  be  a  sleight-of-hand 
performer — a  former  pupil  of  the  only 
Hermann.  He  was  a  half-breed  Indian, 
and  altho  he  was  obviously  very  insane, 
and  had  many  delusions,  he  was  still  able 
to  juggle  in  a  most  astonishing  manner. 

The  young  doctor  gave  him  a  trial  at 
once  in  a  private  room  to  see  if  he  could 
really  do  all  or  even  a  small  part  of  all  the 
things  that  he  claimed.  It  was  hardly  a 
fair  test  even  for  the  very  best  of  per- 
formers as  there  was  no  chance  for  prep- 
aration of  any  kind.  But  after  the  Indian 
had  borrowed  a  handkerchief  and  made  it 
do  all  sorts  of  disappearing  and  reappear- 
ing acts  under  the  very  noses  of  the  on- 
87 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

lookers;  had  done  the  same  things  with 
coins  and  pocket  knives;  and  had  wound 
up  the  entertainment  by  exchanging  the 
watches  of  two  of  the  men  without  their 
discovering  it,  he  was  voted  a  success,  and 
invited  to  act  as  star  performer  in  an  en- 
tertainment to  be  given  the  following  eve- 
ning. This  was  a  very  unusual  proceed- 
ing, for  newcomers  are  seldom  trusted 
before  the  footlights  until  their  peculiari- 
ties are  observed  for  some  little  time.  But 
the  case  was  so  urgent,  and  the  Indian  was 
so  obviously  a  veteran  performer,  that  the 
usual  rule  was  waived.  He  was  told  to 
make  out  a  list  of  the  things  he  needed 
and  they  would  be  forthcoming. 

After  naming  over  a  number  of  things 
he  wished,  the  Indian  said  that  if  he  was 
really  to  give  a  star  performance  he 
should  need  a  dead  cat — a  freshly  killed 
kitten  preferred.  As  a  final  act  he  said 
that  he  would  bring  the  kitten  back  to  life 
88 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

and  then  eat  it.  As  his  talk  had  been  of 
a  rambling  and  boastful  order  all  the  time, 
this  was  interpreted  as  meaning  that  he 
would  pretend  to  bring  the  cat  back  to  life, 
possibly  by  substituting  a  live  one,  and 
then  do  the  familiar  trick  of  pretending 
to  swallow  it.  Accordingly  he  was  fur- 
nished with  the  dead  kitten. 

In  this  institution  it  was  customary 
when  there  was  an  unusually  good  pro- 
gram on  the  boards  to  invite  some  guests 
from  the  neighboring  village  to  enjoy  it. 
As  the  new  Indian  juggler  promised  to  be 
a  peculiarly  attractive  feature  the  invita- 
tions sent  out  were  stretched  to  the  limit 
of  the  seating  capacity  of  the  hall.  In- 
deed, the  Superintendent  and  several  of 
the  officers  sent  special  invitations  to  some 
of  their  friends,  who  were  invited  also  to 
remain  after  the  entertainment  and  spend 
a  social  hour  in  the  officers'  quarters. 

It  was  a  large  and  very  select  audience, 
89 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

therefore,  that  gathered  to  see  the  "In- 
dian wonder "  when  the  time  came  for  his 
closing  performance.  And  he  certainly 
"made  good."  He  called  dignified  mem- 
bers of  the  audience  to  the  stage,  and  re- 
lieved their  pockets  of  all  manner  of 
undignified  sausages  and  other  things; 
and  he  managed  to  find  whole  handfuls  of 
playing  cards  and  poker  chips  in  the 
pockets  of  a  visiting  clergyman,  after  get- 
ting from  him  the  regulation  denial  that 
he  ever  indulged  in  the  game.  He  made 
various  objects  float  across  the  stage  in  a 
most  mysterious  manner,  and  shook  flow- 
ers about  the  stage  from  an  apparently 
empty  funnel  of  paper  in  a  manner  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  the  wizard  him- 
self. 

The  young  doctor  standing  in  the  wings 
and   superintending   things   swelled  with 
justifiable  pride.    His  new  acquisition  was 
making  the  hit  of  the  year. 
90 


THE    CITIZENS    AT    PLAY 

The  time  had  come  at  last  for  the  cul- 
minating act  of  the  performance,  the 
bringing  back  to  life  and  swallowing  of 
the  cat.  The  Indian  stepped  behind  the 
scenes  and  secured  the  dead  kitten,  and 
then  holding  it  up  before  the  audience  he 
announced  gravely  that  he  would  close  the 
performance  by  making  a  meal  of  it.  And 
to  the  horror  and  disgust  of  everyone  he 
started  in  to  keep  his  word.  The  first  bite 
that  he  took  was  supposed  to  be  simply  a 
clever,  if  not  altogether  a  refined,  trick. 
But  there  was  no  mistaking  the  second — 
he  was  actually  eating  that  cat. 

Before  he  could  take  a  third  bite  the 
doctor  in  the  wings  hurriedly  rang  down 
the  curtain;  and  what  he  may  have  said 
to  that  Indian  has  never  been  recorded. 
But  quick  curtain  or  hot  words  could  not 
change  the  effect  produced  upon  the  audi- 
ence. From  a  crowd  beaming  with  pleas- 
ure and  expectation  they  were  suddenly 
91 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

transformed  into  persons  with  distressed 
expressions  very  like  those  of  the  passen- 
gers on  a  Channel  steamer  when  she  be- 
gins her  characteristic  pitch  and  roll.  The 
invited  guests  from  the  village  were  par- 
ticularly affected,  and  anxious  to  seek 
other  quarters. 

But  the  most  miserable  creature  of  all 
was  the  young  doctor  who  was  responsible 
for  the  performance.  He  would  gladly 
have  sneaked  to  his  room  and  locked  him- 
self in  with  his  troubles;  but  he  was  ex- 
pected to  come  to  the  informal  reception 
in  the  Superintendent's  quarters,  and 
there  was  no  escape.  He  dreaded  most  of 
all  the  meeting  with  the  Superintendent 
himself,  for  in  the  few  seconds  that 
elapsed  between  the  beginning  of  the  In- 
dian's last  act  and  the  ringing  down  of  the 
curtain  he  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  the 
Superintendent's  face — pale,  disgusted, 
wrathful. 

92 


THE    CITIZENS   AT   PLAY 

The  young  man  was  not  surprised, 
therefore,  that  his  reception  in  the  officers ' 
quarters  was  not  in  the  nature  of  an  ova- 
tion. And  presently  he  was  face  to  face 
with  the  Superintendent  himself. 

"What  did  you  mean?"  that  officer  be- 
gan wrathfully,  "What  do  you  mean  by 
perpetrating  such  a  thing  upon  an  audi- 
ence, Sir?" 

"What  thing  do  you  mean?"  the  culprit 
began,  sparring  for  time  and  thinking  fast. 

"What  thing!"  the  outraged  chief 
stormed.  "Do  you  have  the  impertinence 
and  bad  taste  to  ask?  You  know  well 
enough  that  I  mean  that  last  thing." 

It  was  now  the  young  doctor's  turn  to 
be  on  his  dignity. 

"If  you  mean  that  last  imitation  of  pre- 
tending to  swallow  a  rag  doll  made  to  look 
like  a  cat,"  he  began 

"Well  wasn't  it  a  cat?"  several  people 
asked  all  at  once. 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

The  young  man  burst  into  peals  of 
laughter — forced,  hysterical  laughter. 
"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,  seriously,"  he 
asked  between  gasps,  "that  any  of  you 
thought  it  was  a  real  cat — and  that  the  In- 
dian really  tried  to  eat  it?" 

"Well  we  certainly  did,"  everybody  as- 
sured him;  "but  we're  glad  to  know  that 
we  were  wrong."  And  the  expressions  on 
their  faces  showed  that  they  were  telling 
the  truth. 

"I  can't  understand  it,"  the  young  man 
said  to  the  Superintendent  afterwards. 
"The  thing  was  so  obviously  a  fake, 
judged  from  where  I  stood  in  the  wings, 
that  I  cut  it  out  by  ringing  down  the  cur- 
tain on  the  fellow.  If  I  had  known  how 
real  it  seemed  to  you  people  in  the  audi- 
ence, I  wouldn't  have  stopped  it." 

But  to  this  day  that  Indian  juggler  has 
never  appeared  on  another  program. 


Chapter  V 
THE  LAW'S  LONG  ARM 


95 


Chapter  V 
THE  LAW'S  LONG  ARM 

If  the  much  vaunted  "honor  among 
thieves"  really  existed  to  any  such  extent 
as  is  generally  believed, — if  there  was  such 
a  criminal's  code  of  honor  as  sensational- 
ists would  have  us  believe, — the  Walled 
City  would  have  to  strengthen  its  walls 
and  double  its  guards.  But  it  is  the  very 
lack  of  honor  among  the  Citizens,  the 
treachery  to  each  other,  that  assists  ma- 
terially in  keeping  them  under  control. 

It  was  said  a  moment  ago  that  one  of 
the  great  factors  which  aided  in  control- 
ling so  large  a  number  of  lunatics  was  their 
mental  peculiarity  which  prevented  their 
making  preconcerted  attacks  and  assaults 
97 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

on  a  large  scale.  This  is  particularly  true 
in  the  case  of  the  more  violent  and  usually 
more  insane  members  of  the  community. 
But  this  factor  is  not  so  important  in  the 
case  of  dangerous,  long-term  convicts  who 
are  convalescent — patients  who  are  prac- 
tically recovered  and  are  ready  to  go  back 
to  their  prisons  again.  These  men  are  able 
to  plan  together,  can  act  in  concert,  and 
would  be  the  most  dangerous  type  of  Citi- 
zens, if  they  could  trust  each  other. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  thought 
uppermost  in  the  mind  of  every  member 
of  the  community,  night  and  day,  is  how 
can  he  escape.  But  most  of  these  men 
have  discovered,  through  experience,  that 
few  of  their  fellows  in  crime  are  to  be 
trusted,  even  with  secrets  concerning 
things  of  common  interest.  That  there  is, 
indeed,  very  little  honor  among  thieves- 
far  less,  as  would  naturally  be  expected, 
than  there  is  among  honest  people.  And 
98 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

so  when  a  member  of  the  Walled  City  com- 
munity takes  a  confederate  into  his  confi- 
dence, because  he  needs  assistance,  he 
knows  that  he  lessens  his  chances  of  suc- 
cess, since  his  confederate  may  prove  to  be 
his  undoing  through  treachery.  If,  for 
example,  some  inmate  has  found  a  means 
by  which  he  thinks  he  can  make  his  escape, 
he  knows  that  if  he  has  a  confederate,  and 
this  confederate  were  to  be  put  to  a  test 
where  it  was  a  case  either  of  "squealing" 
on  the  whole  thing  or  being  punished,  he 
would  "squeal"  nine  times  out  of  ten.  In- 
deed, even  without  pressure  being  brought 
to  bear  upon  him,  the  confederate  would 
very  likely  tell  of  the  entire  plot  and  as- 
sist the  officers  in  defeating  it  on  the  sly,  if 
he  thought  he  could  gain  some  slight  fa- 
vors from  the  officials. 

It    is    this    flagrant    dishonor    among 
thieves,  then,  that  is  the  salvation  of  the 
rulers  of  the  Walled  Cities.    And  at  least 
99 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  detections  of 
plots  that  are  being  hatched  in  these  crim- 
inal institutions,  are  made  through  the 
treachery  of  some  of  the  plotters  them- 
selves, or  some  of  their  intimate  associ- 
ates. Knowing  this,  a  cautious  citizen 
guards  his  plans  quite  as  carefully  from 
his  associates  as  he  does  from  the  officers 
of  the  institution. 

Perhaps  an  inmate  has  secured  a  piece 
of  wire  and  is  secretly  making  a  skeleton 
key.  He  may  be  working  only  at  night 
when  his  dormitory  companions  are  asleep, 
and  when  he  can  keep  an  eye  on  the  watch- 
man. Surely  if  the  man  on  his  left  or 
right  should  detect  him  in  his  work,  there 
would  seem  no  good  reason  for  this  man 
wishing  to  defeat  his  entirely  commend- 
able purpose  of  escaping,  since  every  in- 
mate of  the  place  would  be  glad  to  see  any 
other  escape,  providing  it  did  not  impli- 
cate himself.  But  the  great  danger  is  that 
100 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

it  may  implicate  Mm.  Should  the  man 
who  is  working  on  the  wire  key  fail  in  his 
attempt  when  the  time  comes  to  use  it,  or 
if  he  is  detected  in  his  work  of  making  it, 
his  nearest  room-mates  will  naturally  be 
suspected  of  being  parties  to  the  attempt. 
In  this  case  they  would  forfeit  their  ''com- 
mutation time"  for  good  behavior,  and  be 
blacklisted  for  all  future  favors  of  any 
kind.  For  attempting  to  escape,  or  aiding 
another  to  do  so,  is  considered  the  very 
worst  kind  of  behavior  in  the  City.  It  be- 
comes a  matter  of  self -protection,  then,  to 
"squeal";  and  self -protection  is  a  strongly 
developed  trait  among  the  members  of  a 
criminal  community. 

Naturally  this  tattling  is  not  done 
openly,  and  the  victim  may  never  even  sus- 
pect who  it  was  that  "peached";  but  by 
one  means  or  another  the  officer  in  charge 
is  pretty  sure  to  find  out  that  a  wire  key 
is  being  made,  and  who  is  making  it.  And 
101 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

while  he  carefully  guards  the  secret  of  how 
he  finds  out  about  it,  he  is  none  the  less 
able  to  frustrate  the  attempt.  Thus  the 
inmates  of  the  City  surreptitiously  guard 
each  other,  and  so,  curiously  enough,  stand 
in  their  own  way  of  escaping. 

Occasionally  unforeseen  and  unexpected 
circumstances  prevent  the  consummation 
of  a  well-laid  plot.  A  providential  attack 
of  rheumatism  once  saved  an  institution 
from  a  wholesale  "jail  delivery"  in  a  most 
unexpected  manner.  The  victim  of  the  at- 
tack of  rheumatism,  Jim  Barnum  by  name, 
was  a  convalescent  Citizen  who  was  soon  to 
be  sent  back  to  prison  to  serve  out  his  sen- 
tence. A  few  days  before  the  time  for 
this  transfer,  however,  he  was  attacked 
with  acute  inflammatory  rheumatism  which 
rendered  him  absolutely  helpless,  so  that 
he  was  removed  from  his  own  ward  and 
placed  in  the  hospital  ward.  That  night  he 
sent  an  urgent  message  to  the  Superin- 
102 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

tendent,  asking  that  he  might  see  him 
privately.  At  this  secret  meeting  he  told 
the  officer  that  in  the  bed  of  a  certain 
patient,  on  the  ward  from  which  Barnum 
had  just  been  removed,  there  were  enough 
implements  concealed  to  enable  a  man  to 
" break  out  of  the  Bank  of  England."  He 
told  also  how  the  tools  had  been  smuggled 
in,  and  who  did  the  smuggling. 

Acting  on  this  information  the  Superin- 
tendent had  the  bed  in  question  searched 
at  once,  with  the  result  that  a  veritable 
* '  arsenal ' '  was  discovered  —  hack-saws, 
"jimmys,"  drills,  and  chisels.  It  was  evi- 
dent from  what  was  found  that  there  was 
a  confederate  working  on  the  outside  who 
must  have  sent  up  the  things  on  a  string 
dangled  from  the  window. 

Barnum 's  motive  in  deciding  to  reveal 

the  plot  so  suddenly  is  easily  discerned: 

he  was  afraid  that  the  other  man's  nerve 

would   fail   and  cause   him  to   backslide. 

103 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Whichever  told  the  story  first  could  lay  the 
blame  on  the  other,  and  plead  innocence 
himself. 

Barnum,  of  course,  denied  all  complicity 
in  the  affair,  claiming  to  have  found  out 
about  it  by  mere  chance,  and  only  a  few 
hours  before.  In  all  probability,  however, 
he  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  plot  and  had 
himself  fished  the  things  up  from  the  out- 
side. But  with  the  judgment  born  of  long 
experience  he  had  induced  his  companion 
to  allow  the  tools  to  be  secreted  in  his  bed. 
Thus  if  they  should  be  discovered  or  if 
the  unexpected  should  happen  (as  it  did), 
the  blame  could  not  be  traced  directly  to 
Barnum.  Had  he  delayed  telling  his  story 
a  few  hours  longer,  it  is  probable  that  his 
accomplice  would  have  transferred  the 
"kit"  to  Barnum  7s  bed.  By  acting  quickly, 
therefore,  Barnum  escaped  with  only  a 
strong  suspicion  against  him,  while  his 
companion  was  "caught  with  the  goods." 
104 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

It  is  not  always  the  convalescent  pa- 
tients, however,  that  give  trouble  about 
attempting  to  escape.  Occasionally  a  man 
who  is  so  confused  that  he  would  not  be 
able  to  find  his  way  about  the  country  if 
he  were  turned  out  has  the  genius  for 
getting  through  locks.  A  newcomer  of  this 
kind,  by  the  name  of  Barber,  once  picked 
the  pocket  of  his  attendant  and  secured  a 
pass-key  before  he  had  been  twenty-four 
hours  in  the  building.  He  unlocked  the 
door  unobserved  by  anybody,  and  the  first 
intimation  anyone  had  of  what  he  had 
done  was  when  he  was  brought  in  by  a 
stableman  working  in  the  barns,  who  had 
recognized  Barber  as  a  patient.  After 
getting  outside  the  door  the  patient  had 
gone  straight  to  the  stable  and  asked  the 
man  to  direct  him  how  to  get  off  the  place, 
and  even  requested  the  loan  of  a  horse. 

As  soon  as  Barber  was  brought  into  the, 
ward  again  he  was  questioned  about  the 
105 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

key  and  what  had  become  of  it.  He  de- 
clared that  he  had  thrown  it  away  as  soon 
as  he  had  let  himself  out  of  the  door ;  and, 
as  it  could  not  be  found  anywhere  about 
his  clothing,  a  party  of  men  were  sent  out 
to  search  the  grounds  for  it.  But  they 
were  unsuccessful,  and  after  two  hours 
gave  up  the  search.  An  hour  later  the 
same  stableman  repeated  his  previous  per- 
formance of  bringing  in  the  patient,  who 
had  again  escaped,  gone  straight  to  the 
barns,  as  before,  and  asked  directions,  hav- 
ing apparently  forgotten  all  about  his  pre- 
vious visit. 

It  was  now  evident  that  the  story  of 
having  thrown  away  the  key  was  a  fabrica- 
tion, as  Barber  had  gone  out  of  the  same 
door  as  before  and  asked  directions,  as  in 
the  first  instance.  In  all  probability  the 
key  was  concealed  somewhere  about  the 
man's  clothing,  and  had  been  there  all  the 
time;  yet  a  careful  search  failed  to  reveal 
106 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

it  now  as  before.  The  patient's  clothing 
was  removed  and  searched  thoroughly 
piece  by  piece,  even  to  the  extent  of  tear- 
ing out  linings  and  ripping  up  seams.  But 
still  no  key  was  found.  At  last  someone 
suggested  that  Barber  had  swallowed  it, 
and  this  led  to  the  suggestion  that  possibly 
he  was  "palming"  it.  And  sure  enough 
when  his  hands  were  examined  the  key  was 
found  between  his  fingers,  where  it  had 
been  all  the  time  during  two  careful  ex- 
aminations. 

The  remarkable  part  of  this  case  is  the 
fact  that,  despite  the  man's  confused  men- 
tal condition,  which  was  such  that  he  could 
not  make  his  way  about  when  once  he  had 
escaped,  he  was  still  able  to  do  such  clever 
juggling.  His  years  of  doing  tricks  of 
palming  had  made  that  sort  of  thing  sec- 
ond nature  to  him,  although  his  mind  was 
so  confused  about  other  things. 

Sometimes,  after  a  man  has  successfully 
107 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

made  the  initial  moves  toward  effecting 
his  escape,  the  excitement  produced  will 
act  in  such  a  way  upon  his  mental  condi- 
tion as  to  prevent  him  carrying  out  his 
plans.  Such  a  case  was  that  of  Jim  Sher- 
man, who  escaped  from  a  road-building 
gang  and  was  not  found  for  a  week,  but 
who  was  finally  captured  only  a  few  rods 
from  the  place  at  which  he  was  last  seen. 
Sherman  was  a  man  afflicted  with  epi- 
leptic insanity.  During  the  intervals  be- 
tween his  epileptic  seizures,  which  as  a 
rule  did  not  occur  more  than  three  or  four 
times  a  year,  he  was  practically  in  his 
right  mind.  But  for  several  days  follow- 
ing an  epileptic  attack,  which  might  come 
on  at  any  time,  he  was  entirely  irresponsi- 
ble, and  very  violent  and  dangerous.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  strength,  and  he 
spared  neither  persons  nor  property  dur- 
ing his  "spells."  The  only  place  where 
he  could  safely  be  kept,  for  the  good  of 
108 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

himself  as  well  as  the  community  at  large, 
was  in  the  Walled  City. 

The  life  in  the  institution  had  a  very 
beneficial  effect  upon  his  condition,  as  it 
does  almost  invariably  in  such  cases,  and 
his  lucid  intervals  became  extended  until 
at  last  almost  a  year  elapsed  since  his  last 
attack  of  epilepsy.  And  as  he  was  a  vig- 
orous fellow,  anxious  to  be  at  work,  he  was 
given  a  place  with  a  gang  of  men  working 
on  the  road  about  half  a  mile  outside  the 
walls  of  the  institution.  These  men  were 
under  the  supervision  of  several  guards, 
of  course,  but  most  of  them  were  trusty 
patients,  and  a  good  many  little  liberties 
were  allowed  them,  although  a  keen  watch 
was  kept  upon  them  most  of  the  time. 

There  was  probably  as  little  suspicion 
about  the  actions  of  Sherman,  however,  as 
any  member  of  the  working  gang,  because 
he  had  frequently  made  the  statement  that 
he  had  no  desire  to  leave  the  City  as  he  did 
109 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

not  believe  it  would  be  safe  for  him  to  be 
at  large.  But  his  actions  finally  showed 
how  little  the  word  of  a  Citizen  can  be  re- 
lied upon,  where  the  matter  of  his  liberty 
is  concerned.  For  all  the  time  that  Sher- 
man was  asserting  that  he  wished  to  re- 
main in  the  City,  he  was  planning  to  leave 
it.  And  one  day  when  the  road  gang  was 
working  near  a  strip  of  dense  woods,  he 
slipt  into  them  and  disappeared. 

He  had  hardly  reached  cover  before  he 
was  missed,  and  within  half  an  hour  a 
score  of  guards  were  scouring  the  country, 
watching  roads,  surrounding  the  piece  of 
woodland,  and  beating  it  up  carefully. 
Nevertheless  no  trace  of  the  fugitive  was 
found,  and  night  came  on  before  the  woods 
had  been  thoroughly  searched.  This  search 
was,  to  be  sure,  very  much  on  the  ' '  needle 
in  the  haystack"  order,  as  the  underbrush 
was  thick  and  almost  impenetrable ;  but  it 
was  a  simple  matter  to  surround  the  woods 
110 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

with  men  and  torchlights  and  thus  hold 
the  fugitive  prisoner. 

The  following  morning  all  the  available 
force  from  the  City  began  searching  the 
woods  again,  spending  the  entire  day 
without  success.  From  this  it  was  con- 
cluded that  Sherman  had  been  able  to 
make  better  time  than  was  suspected  at 
first,  had  gone  through  the  woods  before 
they  could  be  surrounded,  and  was  some- 
where at  large  about  the  country.  But  this 
possibility  had  been  thought  of  from  the 
very  first,  and  bodies  of  men  had  been  de- 
tailed to  watch  all  the  roads  and  fields  in 
all  directions  about  the  country.  Yet  none 
of  them  had  found  any  trace  of  the  fugi- 
tive. A  general  council  of  men  and  officers 
was  called,  therefore,  to  decide  upon  the 
best  plan  of  continuing  the  search  system- 
atically. 

Generally  speaking  there  are  two  types 
of  fugitives  among  this  class  of  citizens. 
Ill 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

One  of  these,  known  as  "hiders,"  is  made 
up  of  those  who  secrete  themselves  and 
remain  hidden  as  long  as  they  can  until 
the  searching  parties  have  given  up  the 
chase;  the  other,  known  as  "travelers," 
consist  of  men  that  make  very  little  effort 
to  secrete  themselves,  but  who  hurry  away 
from  the  scene  of  their  escape  as  rapidly 
as  possible.  The  class  to  which  a  fugitive 
will  belong  can  frequently  be  foretold  by 
his  general  characteristics  and  the  form  of 
his  insanity.  Obviously  this  is  an  impor- 
tant thing  to  pre-determine  as  without  it 
the  searching  parties  may  be  working 
along  precisely  wrong  lines. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  of- 
ficers, Sherman  came  into  the  " traveler" 
class,  and  most  of  the  searching  parties 
scattered  themselves  over  the  country  in- 
stead of  sitting  down  and  watching  limited 
areas.  As  a  precaution,  however,  a  small 
force  was  left  to  guard  the  wood  where 
112 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

the  fugitive  had  disappeared,  although  this 
seemed  very  much  like  watching  the  barn 
after  the  horse  is  gone. 

For  four  days  and  nights  these  guards 
watched  and  smoked  away  the  time,  while 
the  other  parties  scoured  the  country  for 
miles  around.  The  fifth  morning,  just  as 
the  word  was  being  sent  out  recalling  all 
the  guards  and  giving  up  the  chase  on  the 
supposition  that  Sherman  had  been  able 
to  catch  a  passing  train  and  escape  from 
the  country,  the  fugitive  appeared  at  the 
edge  of  the  woods,  and  gave  himself  up. 
Pale,  wild-eyed,  bruised  and  torn,  he 
begged  to  be  taken  back  to  the  City  and 
given  something  to  eat.  It  was  several 
days  before  he  was  able  to  tell  his  remark- 
able story. 

It  seemed  that  the  idea  of  making  his 

escape  had  been  recently  developed,  and 

was  based  upon  the  fact  that  such  a  long 

interval  had  elapsed  since  his  last  attack 

113 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

of  epilepsy  that  he  believed  himself  re- 
covered, although  assured  to  the  contrary 
by  the  physicians.  Convinced  that  he  had 
finally  shaken  off  his  enemy,  therefore,  and 
seeing  no  way  of  bringing  the  authorities 
to  his  belief,  he  determined  to  escape. 

He  had  noticed  that  at  a  certain  time 
each  day  a  regular  freight  train  passed 
close  to  the  opposite  edge  of  the  woods 
from  where  his  gang  was  working.  He 
laid  his  plans  accordingly  to  slip  into  the 
woods  unobserved  a  few  minutes  before 
train  time,  run  as  quickly  as  possible  to 
the  track,  and  catch  the  train — possibly  be- 
fore his  escape  was  discovered.  The  first 
part  of  this  plan  of  slipping  into  the  woods 
was  accomplished  without  difficulty.  But 
the  mental  strain  produced  by  the  thought 
of  what  he  was  going  to  do — the  excite- 
ment of  actually  being  on  his  way  to  lib- 
erty— was  so  great  that  it  brought  on  an 
attack  of  his  long  quiescent  disease,  and 
114 


THE    LAWS    LONG    ARM 

he  fell  unconscious  before  he  was  half  way 
through  the  woods. 

As  this  unconsciousness  in  his  particular 
case  was  usually  prolonged  to  hours,  it  is 
probable  that  he  was  lying  somewhere  in 
the  thick  underbrush  at  the  time  the  woods 
were  being  beaten  up  by  the  searching 
party  of  the  first  day.  Of  this,  naturally, 
Sherman  knew  nothing.  The  first  thing  he 
remembered  was  the  sensation  of  being 
cold,  and  gradually  becoming  conscious  of 
the  fact  that  it  was  night  and  that  he  was 
lying  in  the  woods.  It  was  toward  morn- 
ing before  he  could  collect  his  thoughts 
enough  to  realize  what  had  happened,  and 
when  he  did  realize  it  the  effect  was  the 
same  as  the  day  before — he  was  seized 
with  another  attack  of  epilepsy  and  top- 
pled over  again.  This  thing  was  repeated 
time  after  time  during  the  four  days  in 
the  woods,  until,  completely  dazed  and 
wandering  aimlessly  about,  he  finally 
115 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

stumbled  upon  the  guards  at  the  edge  of 
the  woods. 

The  fact  that  this  patient  was  able  to 
remain  undetected  in  a  relatively  small 
patch  of  woods  for  such  a  long  time,  when 
a  body  of  men  were  watching  night  and 
day,  naturally  raises  the  query  as  to  the 
diligence  of  the  watchers.  But  it  is  prob- 
able that  they  were  not  derelict  in  their 
duties,  and  that  the  explanation  is  the 
same  as  that  of  why  it  usually  happens 
that  careless  and  drunken  persons  seldom 
get  hurt.  Had  Sherman  been  able  to  use 
his  wits,  and  have  been  on  the  lookout  for 
the  guards,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  they 
would  have  found  him  in  the  woods  at  first. 
Had  he  been  skulking  among  the  trees,  try- 
ing to  avoid  detection,  someone  would  al- 
most certainly  have  seen  him,  or  heard  him 
rustle  the  underbrush. 

Possibly  the  impression  may  have  been 
given,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  es- 
116 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

caping  from  the  Walled  City  is  compara- 
tively easy.  This  is  far  from  the  truth. 
Escaping  from  the  building  itself  is  a  most 
difficult  matter,  and  getting  away  from  the 
immediate  neighborhood  is  even  more  so. 
For  the  City  rulers  have  regular  and  syste- 
matic methods  of  going  about  apprehend- 
ing fugitives,  and  are  usually  successful  in 
capturing  them. 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  escape  from  a 
criminal  hospital  is  easier  than  from  a 
prison,  not  because  the  walls  are  thinner 
or  lower,  or  the  bars  weaker,  but  because 
of  the  comparative  leniency  of  the  officers 
toward  their  charges.  Prisons  are  for 
punishments;  hospitals  for  the  treatment 
of  disease.  And  part  of  this  treatment 
consists  in  allowing  as  much  freedom  to 
every  inmate  as  is  consistent  with  safety. 
It  is  in  cases  where  this  line  of  safety  is 
just  overstepped  that  escapes  occur. 

On  the  other  hand,  anything  that  the 
117 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

City  officers  may  lack  in  their  methods  of 
preventing  escapes  is  easily  compensated 
by  their  skill  in  recapturing  fugitives.  In 
each  of  these  institutions  a  regular  plan 
of  procedure  is  laid  out  which  is  to  be  fol- 
lowed whenever  there  is  an  escape.  This 
plan  is  based  on  the  past  experience  of  the 
institution,  and  no  two  of  these  plans  are 
alike  except  in  a  general  way.  The  method 
of  covering  the  ground  around  an  insti- 
tution located  in  a  flat  country,  for  ex- 
ample, would  be  entirely  different  from 
that  of  an  institution  in  a  hilly  country. 

Most  of  these  institutions  are  in  hilly 
countries,  and  years  of  experience  have 
shown  that  almost  invariably  the  route 
taken  by  a  fugitive  will  eventually  lead 
him  to  pass  one  of  a  dozen  points  within 
three  or  four  miles  of  the  building.  A  pa- 
tient who  is  attempting  to  escape  may  be 
aware  of  this  and  may  start  out  on  a  "bee 
line"  across  country,  determined  to  avoid 
118 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

these  fatal  places;  but  almost  invariably 
he  is  diverted  into  the  vicinity  of  some  of 
these  " stands." 

Knowing  this  fact,  the  first  step  taken 
by  the  City  officers  when  a  patient  is 
missed,  no  matter  when  or  where,  is  to 
give  an  alarm  which  sends  the  requisite 
number  of  bicyclists  scurrying  along  the 
roads,  making  for  their  respective  stands. 
The  duty  of  each  is  to  get  to  his  station 
as  quickly  as  possible,  and  remain  there 
on  watch,  night  and  day,  until  he  gets  his 
man,  or  is  relieved.  At  the  same  time 
squads  of  men  who  are  familiar  with  every 
foot  of  the  ground  within  the  now  sur- 
rounded area  begin  beating  up  the  coun- 
try. As  a  rule  these  squads  are  assigned 
to  certain  territories  if  the  general  direc- 
tion taken  by  the  fugitive  is  not  known 
definitely;  but  there  are  always  a  number 
of  "free  lances" — men  who  have  a  verita- 
ble genius  for  guessing  the  probable 
119 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

whereabouts  of  the  fugitive — who  are  al- 
lowed to  choose  their  own  territory.  The 
Sherlock  Holmes  qualities  of  some  of  these 
sleuths  in  running  down  clues  and  getting 
their  men  border  on  the  marvelous. 
Every  institution  has  a  certain  number  of 
such  men  who  have  made  reputations  as 
"  trailers, "  and  their  presence  about  the 
place  acts  as  a  constant  damper  to  would- 
be  "elopers." 

"It's  no  use  trying  to  get  past  Doyle," 
a  returned  fugitive  said  to  me  one  day 
when  brought  in  by  the  grizzled,  hickory- 
limbed  keeper  of  that  name.  "I  was 
pretty  sure  of  it,  before,  but  I  know  it 
now. ' ' 

And  in  truth  it  seemed  sometimes  as  if 
this  particular  trailer  possessed  some  oc- 
cult means,  some  peculiarly  developed  in- 
stinct, for  determining  where  to  look  for 
runaways.  I  remember  one  instance 
where  there  was  fairly  good  evidence  that 
120 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

the  eloper  had  started  toward  the  north, 
and  every  officer  and  man  about  the  place, 
whose  opinion  was  worth  consideration, 
advised  concentrating  all  efforts  in  a 
northerly  direction.  Doyle  said  nothing; 
but  when  the  start  was  made  he  headed 
straight  south.  All  day  long  and  all  the 
following  night  negative  reports  kept  com- 
ing in  from  the  searching  parties  in  the 
north.  Doyle  sent  in  no  reports.  But  just 
at  dawn  the  next  morning  he  telephoned 
simply : 

"Call  in  your  men." 

Two  hours  later  he  stalked  into  the 
building  bringing  with  him  the  very  de- 
jected fugitive. 

"I  thought  I'd  get  him  sooner,"  was 
Doyle's  only  comment. 

It  was  found  later  that  the  first  clue  as 

to  the  man  starting  toward  the  north  was 

correct.  He  had  done  so,  and  then  doubled 

back  to  the  south  to  throw  his  pursuers 

121 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

off  the  trail.  Doyle  suspected  this,  but 
just  why  he  couldn't  tell  himself.  It  suf- 
ficed, however,  that  he  brought  in  his  man. 

But  of  course  even  the  great  Doyle  was 
outwitted  at  times,  once,  at  least,  by  the 
simplest  kind  of  a  ruse.  A  certain  long- 
term  convict  known  as  Jimmy  Kyan  one 
day  stepped  outside  the  gates  with  his 
keeper,  as  he  had  done  a  hundred  times 
before,  and  disappeared  as  completely  as 
if  he  had  been  spirited  away.  To  this  day 
he  has  never  been  apprehended,  and  it  is 
only  within  a  short  time  that  the  way  he 
made  his  escape  has  become  known,  al- 
though at  the  time  an  eye-witness  was  sup- 
posed to  have  seen  him  run  into  a  corn- 
field. 

Ryan  had  been  in  the  City  about  two 
years  at  the  time  of  his  escape,  and  was 
considered  too  stupid  a  patient  to  attempt 
such  a  thing.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most 
of  his  seeming  stupidity  was  assumed — 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

assumed  for  the  very  purpose  of  carrying 
out  his  deep-laid  plan.  He  had  come  into 
the  institution  from  prison,  where  he  had 
become  morbidly  melancholy.  There  was 
no  question  of  his  insanity  being  genuine, 
and  for  several  months  after  coming  to 
the  City  he  was  a  typical  patient  of  his 
class.  While  he  was  still  convalescent, 
however,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  pretend- 
ing to  remain  insane,  hoping  that  when  he 
had  become  a  seemingly  hopeless  case,  and 
a  well-behaved  patient,  an  opportunity 
would  be  given  him  to  escape.  For  of 
course  there  is  far  less  danger  of  a  stupid 
and  apparently  demented  patient  making 
his  escape  than  of  an  active-minded  one; 
and  for  this  reason  these  demented  pa- 
tients are  given  many  opportunities  that 
are  not  put  in  the  way  of  the  brighter 
ones. 

Eyan's  action  in  this  matter  was  very 
unusual.     It  is  a  common  thing  for  men 
123 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

to  feign  insanity  to  get  into  the  City,  and 
also  for  them  to  attempt  to  appear  sane 
in  order  to  get  out  when  their  terms  of 
sentence  expire.  It  is  seldom,  however, 
that  a  man  who  has  actually  been  insane 
is  keen  enough  to  play  the  game  of  still 
seeming  stupidly  insane  for  some  two 
years  without  detection.  But  Ryan  was 
a  remarkable  man  in  many  ways. 

He  had  been  simulating  insanity  for  at 
least  eighteen  months  when  the  first  steps 
leading  to  his  escape  were  taken.  This 
was  when  he  was  selected  as  one  of  the 
patients  to  help  in  working  about  the 
yards.  Ordinarily  a  man  with  a  long 
term  of  sentence  hanging  over  him,  as  in 
the  case  of  Eyan,  would  not  have  been  al- 
lowed to  do  this  work,  as  the  opportunities 
for  escape  were  too  tempting.  But  Ryan's 
persistent  stupidity  had  deceived  the  doc- 
tors into  the  belief  that  he  was  an  incur- 
able patient.  Such  patients  are  frequently 
124 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

good  workers;  and  Ryan  had  shown  him- 
self to  be  one  of  these,  despite  his  stu- 
pidity. 

The  other  patient  who  was  working  with 
Ryan  was  a  convalescent  named  Davis, 
whose  term  of  sentence  would  soon  expire, 
and  who  would  then  be  released.  For  ob- 
vious reasons  this  type  of  patient  may 
usually  be  trusted  absolutely.  For,  as  is 
generally  known,  no  prisoners  except 
those  sentenced  to  life  imprisonment 
really  serve  their  full  term  of  sentence,  a 
rebate,  or  commutation  of  a  definite  num- 
ber of  months  or  years  being  allowed  them 
for  good  behavior.  A  man  sentenced  to 
do  ten  years,  for  example,  really  serves 
only  about  six  and  a  half,  if  he  behaves 
himself.  But  one  of  the  worst  misdemean- 
ors possible — one  that  cuts  off  the  com- 
mutation time — is  that  of  attempting  to 
escape.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  a 
man  having  only  three  or  four  months  of 
125 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

his    "good    time"    to    serve    would    not 
jeopardize  his  chances  by  running  away. 

Before  Kyan  and  Davis  had  been  work- 
ing together  many  days,  Eyan  had  taken 
Davis  into  his  confidence  and  revealed  his 
plan  to  him.  Part  of  this  plan  necessi- 
tated the  use  of  a  confederate,  and  Davis 
finally  consented  to  act  in  that  capacity. 
Indeed,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  take 
a  very  active  part,  and  make  the  initial 
moves. 

The  first  of  these  was  to  ask  the  keeper 
to  allow  him  to  carry  a  pocket  comb,  and 
let  his  closely  cropped  hair  grow  out. 
Neither  of  these  requests  are  unusual,  and 
are  generally  granted,  so  that  when  dis- 
charged the  criminal  may  have  hair  of 
regulation  length,  and  look  as  little  like 
a  "prison  bird"  as  possible.  And  so  the 
two  plotters  were  soon  equipped  with  the 
seemingly  harmless  implement  that  was 
finally  to  aid  Kyan  in  escaping. 
126 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

There  are  no  pockets  in  the  clothing 
worn  by  the  Citizens,  so,  in  order  to  carry 
the  comb  about,  Davis  got  permission 
from  his  keeper  to  make  a  sort  of  pocket 
in  his  coat  just  deep  enough  so  that  the 
end  of  the  comb  would  protrude  and  show 
that  it  was  a  comb  and  nothing  worse. 
For  if  any  of  the  guards  were  to  mistake 
it  for  anything  else,  they  would  be  likely 
to  take  it  out  and  examine  it,  and  this  was 
the  very  thing  that  Davis  wished  to  avoid. 
So  after  he  had  carried  it  about  for  sev- 
eral days  until  all  the  keepers  had  become 
accustomed  to  seeing  it,  he  and  Ryan  be- 
gan the  work  of  turning  one  end  of  the 
comb  into  a  key  to  duplicate  the  ones  used 
in  all  the  doors  about  the  institution. 

To  those  not  initiated  a  comb  may  seem 
to  be  a  very  poor  implement  from  which 
to  make  a  door  key;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  is  almost  an  ideal  one  for  certain 
kinds  of  keys.  The  back  of  the  comb  may 
127 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

be  made  to  take  the  place  of  the  shank, 
while  the  teeth  can  be  fashioned  into  the 
points  for  moving  the  parts  in  the  lock. 
There  are  usually  only  two  or  three  of 
these  points  that  are  actually  used  in  turn- 
ing, most  of  the  rest  of  the  key  being  sim- 
ply for  strength  or  for  "bluff."  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  a  skeleton  key  will  open 
locks,  the  keys  to  which  are  seemingly 
very  unlike  the  skeleton;  but  if  the  two 
are  compared  the  essential  points  will  be 
found  to  be  the  same.  This,  of  course,  ap- 
plies only  to  the  ordinary  type  of  key,  not 
to  the  fluted  ones,  the  invention  of  which, 
by  the  way,  put  hundreds  of  "skeleton- 
key  men"  out  of  business. 

Davis  and  Eyan  worked  away  on  their 
comb  key  with  bits  of  glass,  tin,  and  iron, 
that  they  picked  up  in  the  yard,  sometimes 
working  in  the  daytime,  one  of  them  on 
the  lookout  while  the  other  worked.  It 
was  a  tedious  process,  but  not  such  a  diffi- 
128 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

cult  one,  as  both  Davis  and  Eyan  had  seen 
the  keeper's  key  hundreds  of  times  as  he 
locked  or  unlocked  the  doors;  and  at  the 
end  of  a  week  they  had  made  a  key  that 
would  turn  a  lock  as  nicely  as  the  Super- 
intendent's own. 

When  not  working  on  the  comb  Davis 
carried  it  with  the  end  protruding  con- 
spicuously from  his  pocket,  ostentatiously 
combing  his  hair  many  times  every  day, 
but  keeping  his  fingers  carefully  over  the 
key  end  of  it.  And  of  course  Eyan  kept 
up  his  part  of  being  the  same  stupid 
''dement"  as  ever. 

The  chance  they  were  waiting  for  came 
one  day  about  a  week  after  the  key  was 
finished,  when  the  keeper  took  them  to  do 
some  work  just  outside  a  gate  in  the  six- 
teen-foot fence  that  formed  the  outer  wall 
of  the  City  yard.  They  had  been  at  their 
task  only  a  few  minutes  when  their  guard 
had  to  go  inside  the  yard  to  the  black- 
129 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

smith  shop  to  have  a  little  tinkering  done 
on  the  handle  of  a  shovel.  As  he  would 
only  require  a  minute  or  two  he  let  the 
two  men  go  on  with  their  work  while  he 
stepped  inside,  leaving  the  gate  open  be- 
hind him,  just  as  he  had  done  a  dozen 
times  before.  But  he  was  hardly  inside 
the  shop,  when  Davis  rushed  in  on  his 
heels,  hatless  and  excited,  yelling  that 
Eyan  had  made  a  break  for  liberty.  Bush- 
ing back  through  the  gate,  the  guard 
found  that  Ryan  was  already  out  of  sight, 
and  as  a  cornfield  was  only  a  hundred 
yards  away  from  the  gate,  he  supposed 
that  the  fugitive  had  run  into  that. 

It  seemed  a  moral  certainty  that  Ryan 
would  be  caught,  as  he  had  only  a  minute 's 
start,  and  as  the  cornfield  was  small  and 
the  nearest  cover  of  woods  two  miles 
away.  So  instead  of  plunging  into  the 
corn,  the  keeper  ran  inside  the  yard  and 
turned  in  an  alarm.  Five  minutes  later 
130 


THE    LAW'S    LONG    ARM 

a  squad  of  bicycle  guards  were  scooting 
along  the  roads  leading  from  the  City  to 
the  various  observation  stands,  while  an- 
other squad  beat  up  the  cornfield. 

Of  course  Davis  was  suspected  of  being 
implicated  in  the  affair,  and  he  was  haled 
before  the  Superintendent  to  give  explana- 
tion ;  but  the  story  he  told  was  so  plausible 
that  he  cleared  himself  completely.  He 
said  that  when  he  saw  Ryan  start  to  run 
he  knew  that  the  only  thing  that  could 
save  his  own  skin  was  either  to  catch  him 
or  to  give  the  alarm  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible. As  Ryan  had  a  start  of  several 
rods  before  Davis  realized  what  was  hap- 
pening, he  made  no  attempt  to  chase  him, 
but  ran  inside  the  yard  and  gave  the 
alarm.  This  story  seemed  to  be  so  per- 
fectly in  accordance  with  other  facts  that 
the  suspected  man  was  exonerated  and 
sent  to  his  ward. 

But  all  this  time  Ryan  was  neither  hid- 
131 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

ing  in  the  cornfield  nor  running  across  the 
country,  but  was  actually  inside  the  City 
yards,  with  two  strong  locks  turned  be- 
tween himself  and  liberty. 

When  the  keeper  started  for  the  black- 
smith shop,  Eyan  had  slipped  into  the 
yard  behind  him,  unlocked  the  door  of  a 
little  tool-house  that  stood  just  inside  the 
gate,  and  wormed  himself  under  some 
tools  and  rubbish  in  one  corner.  Davis 
had  followed  him  into  the  yard,  and  as 
soon  as  he  saw  the  tool-house  door  close, 
he  rushed  after  the  guard  and  gave  the 
alarm. 

The  very  boldness  of  the  scheme  insured 
its  success.  For  one  would  hardly  expect 
a  man  to  try  to  get  out  of  prison  by  run- 
ning back  into  it,  once  he  was  outside. 
And  if  Eyan  had  really  made  a  run  for 
liberty  across  the  fields,  as  he  was  sup- 
posed to  have  done,  he  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  captured.  By  lying  low  in  the 
132 


THE   LAW'S   LONG   ARM 

tool  house  for  several  days  until  the  men 
who  were  scouring  the  country  should  give 
up  the  search,  Eyan  could  choose  his  night 
and  slip  out  over  the  wall,  with  no  one 
to  fear  but  the  outside  watchman.  Mean- 
while Davis  was  to  keep  him  supplied  with 
food  which  he  was  to  steal  from  the  mess 
table.  They  had  picked  out  a  place  within 
a  few  feet  of  the  tool-house  door  where 
Davis  was  to  leave  this  daily  supply. 

Up  to  this  point  everything  in  Eyan's 
plans  had  worked  out  perfectly,  but  here 
came  a  hitch.  The  country  was  being  pa- 
troled  night  and  day  to  prevent  his  es- 
cape, and  as  this  required  a  large  force 
of  men,  every  spare  keeper  was  taken  off 
his  regular  work  where  possible,  and  sent 
out  to  watch.  Among  these  men  was  the 
guard  who  had  had  charge  of  Davis  and 
Eyan.  So  that  instead  of  being  out  in  the 
yards  every  day,  as  he  had  expected, 
Davis  was  left  locked  up  in  his  ward,  and 
133 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

thus  foiled  in  his  plans  for  smuggling  out 
Eyan's  supply  of  food. 

For  a  day  or  two  this  made  little  differ- 
ence, for  men  of  Eyan's  stamp  could  fast 
for  that  length  of  time  without  great  in- 
convenience; but  by  the  end  of  the  third 
day  Eyan  was  ready  to  collapse,  and  Davis 
was  about  the  most  miserable  creature  im- 
aginable. Locked  up  in  the  ward  where  he 
could  look  out  and  see  Eyan's  cage  all  the 
time,  and  knowing  that  it  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  until  starvation  would  drive 
the  prisoner  out,  he  was  helpless  to  avert 
the  calamity.  And  of  course  the  discov- 
ery of  Eyan  meant  a  calamity  to  both. 

Meanwhile,  Eyan  had  no  means  of  know- 
ing what  was  happening  outside.  He  did 
not  come  out  of  the  tool  house  for  the  first 
twenty-four  hours;  but  when  he  crawled 
out  the  second  night  to  get  a  drink  of  wa- 
ter at  the  hydrant  and  some  food,  he  was 
chagrined  to  find  that  there  was  none  there 
134 


THE   LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

for  him.  By  the  third  night  the  gnawing 
in  his  stomach  was  making  him  desperate. 
He  could  not  understand  why  Davis  had 
failed  him,  and  he  about  decided  to  climb 
the  wall  and  make  a  break  to  get  through 
the  line  of  guards.  It  was  an  almost  hope- 
less chance,  he  knew,  but  scarcely  more  so 
than  staying  in  the  tool  house  to  starve 
to  death  like  a  caged  rat,  and  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  chance  it  the  following  night 
if  the  food  did  not  come. 

By  the  following  night  he  had  become 
convinced  that  Davis  had  not  brought  the 
food  simply  because  his  "nerve"  had 
failed  him,  and  he  determined  to  "get 
even. ' ' 

By  coming  out  of  the  tool  house  in  broad 
daylight  and  giving  himself  up,  comb  and 
all,  there  would  be  no  question  as  to  Davis 
being  implicated;  whereas  if  he  should 
make  a  break  across  the  fields  and  be 
caught,  Davis  might  make  up  a  story  that 
135 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

would  clear  himself.  As  nothing  could  be 
done  until  the  next  morning,  however, 
Eyan  crawled  out  of  his  cage  about  mid- 
night and  went  prowling  boldly  about  the 
yards,  not  caring  much  whether  anyone 
saw  him  or  not.  He  poked  about  into  all 
the  holes  and  corners,  and  finally  came 
into  the  blacksmith  shop.  There  he  had 
an  inspiration.  He  remembered  that  old 
John,  the  blacksmith,  who  was  a  ' l  trusty, ' ' 
often  smuggled  out  pieces  of  food  to 
munch  at  between  meals.  Some  scraps 
were  probably  concealed  about  his  shop; 
and  by  rummaging  through  all  the  cup- 
boards and  boxes  Eyan  managed  to  find 
quite  a  quantity  of  pieces  of  food,  all  hard 
and  dry,  but  mighty  toothsome  to  a  starv- 
ing man. 

This  find  put  new  life  into  him,  and  he 

decided  to  stay  in  the  tool  house  for  at 

least    another    twenty-four   hours.     And 

the    following   night,    as    he   was    start- 

136 


THE    LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

ing  out  for  another  prowl  in  the  black- 
smith shop,  he  stumbled  on  a  bundle  of 
paper  close  to  his  door,  and  a  piece  of 
blue  shirting  tied  in  a  peculiar  bow  knot. 
The  bundle  was  Davis*  long-delayed  sup- 
ply of  food,  and  the  knot  was  the  signal 
from  him  that  the  guards  had  been  called 
in  and  that  the  coast  was  clear  from  that 
quarter.  Davis  had  placed  the  things 
there  that  afternoon,  when  his  keeper  had 
taken  him  out  of  his  ward  for  the  first 
time  since  Ryan's  escape. 

To  bolt  Davis '  supply  of  food,  climb  the 
high  fence,  and  hurry  "cross  lots"  out  of 
the  country,  required  only  a  few  hours. 
The  mystery  surrounding  his  escape  was 
not  solved  until  five  years  later,  when 
Davis,  in  a  burst  of  confidence,  described 
his  own  connection  with  it  to  an  ex-officer 
of  the  City. 

Of  course  when  there  is  an  escape  from 
the  City  the  fact  is  soon  known  to  every 
137 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

person  about  the  place ;  and  while  the  fate 
of  the  fugitive  hangs  in  the  balance  the 
nerves  of  the  entire  community  are  strung 
to  the  highest  tension.  Every  hour  that 
passes  feeds  the  suppressed  flame  of  hope 
among  the  Citizens,  each  of  whom,  with- 
out exception,  secretly  wishes  the  eloper 
success.  As  the  days  pass  and  still  the 
fugitive  remains  at  liberty,  the  tension  re- 
laxes; men  talk  louder  and  play  more 
games,  and  a  suppressed  feeling  of  exalta- 
tion is  apparent  among  them.  And  if  the 
guards  are  finally  called  in  and  the  chase 
given  up,  a  veritable  epidemic  of  schemes 
for  escaping  is  sure  to  follow.  For  a  suc- 
cessful "elopement"  is  infectious. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  culprit  is  cap- 
tured, and  brought  back  a  bedraggled,  ex- 
hausted, dejected,  and  altogether  pitiable 
object,  the  entire  city  is  thrown  into  the 
deepest  gloom.  For  this  ignominious  re- 
turn is  closely  akin  to  a  personal  matter 
138 


THE   LAW'S    LONG   ARM 

with  most  of  the  Citizens.  This  is  the 
way  each  one  of  them  may  look  some  day 
should  his  pet  scheme  fail,  just  as  this 
man's  has  done.  And  many  well-rounded 
plans  for  escape  that  would  be  put  into 
active  operation  if  one  fugitive  had  suc- 
ceeded are  nipped  in  the  bud  by  his  re- 
turn. The  older  officials  about  the  City 
know  that  for  a  few  days  at  least,  until  the 
first  discouraging  effects  of  the  failure 
have  worn  off,  they  can  relax  their  vigi- 
lance a  little. 


139 


Chapter  VI 

THE    SHORTCOMINGS    OF    THE    CITY 
RULERS 


141 


Chapter  VI 

THE    SHORTCOMINGS    OF    THE    CITY 
RULERS 

One  of  the  most  striking  lessons  of  the 
Walled  Cities  is  the  fact  that  no  such 
thing  as  " eternal  vigilance"  is  possible. 
There  are  unaccountable  moments  of  lax- 
ity on  the  part  of  every  one  about  every 
institution,  from  the  most  trusted  officer 
to  the  newest  cub  attendant.  Not  only 
moments,  but  days,  and  even  weeks,  of 
apparent  obtuseness  to  the  most  glaring 
lapses  of  discipline  passing  under  the  very 
noses  of  a  dozen  persons.  Then  "some- 
thing happens,"  the  looseness  in  one  par- 
ticular quarter  is  corrected,  and  things 
run  along  smoothly  as  before  until  an- 
other "something"  occurs. 
143 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

In  the  nature  of  things  the  most  com- 
mon of  these  oversights  are  in  connection 
with  attempts  to  escape,  which  may  be 
tragic  enough  in  the  end;  but  occasionally 
there  is  an  element  of  the  ludicrous  to  re- 
lieve the  situation.  The  finding  of  a  mini- 
ature distillery  a  few  years  ago,  running 
in  full  blast  in  the  very  center  of  one  of 
the  Cities,  where  very  effective,  if  not  very 
palatable,  rum  was  produced  and  doled  out 
to  the  friends  of  the  "trusty"  Citizen- 
distiller,  is  an  instance  where  the  "eternal 
vigilance"  of  an  institution  was  caught 
napping.  Curiously  enough  the  still  itself 
was  not  discovered,  or  its  existence  sus- 
pected, until  the  reckless  tippling  of  some 
Citizens  who  were  being  returned  to 
prison  from  the  City  made  it  evident  that 
there  must  be  some  kind  of  an  alcohol- 
producing  apparatus  somewhere  about  the 
place. 

The  trouble  began  when  the  warden  of 
144 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

the  prison,  to  whom  two  criminals  who  had 
recovered  from  their  mental  derangement 
had  been  returned  from  the  Walled  City, 
reported  to  the  superintendent  of  the  City 
that  the  men  were  delivered  to  him  * '  roar- 
ing drunk. ' '  The  supposition  was  that  the 
two  officers  who  were  in  charge  of  the 
men  in  transit  had  given  them  liquor,  for 
some  reason  best  known  to  themselves. 
But  this  seemed  unlikely,  and  was  practi- 
cally disproved  by  the  testimony  of  re- 
liable and  disinterested  witnesses.  Then 
the  warden,  presumably  by  some  of  those 
methods  of  discipline  common  to  prisons, 
finally  dragged  from  the  two  prisoners  a 
confession  that  cleared  matters  completely 
— to  the  great  discomfiture  of  the  City  au- 
thorities. For,  guided  by  the  statements 
of  the  two  men,  the  officers  of  the  City 
found  a  miniature  distillery  in  an  out-of- 
the-way  corner  of  the  basement  of  their 
building.  Not  only  found  it,  but  found  it 
145 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

running  full  blast,  with  the  old  " trusty" 
who  had  constructed  it  and  kept  it  running 
for  months  calmly  engaged  in  making  his 
"moonshine,"  quite  indifferent  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  breaking  a  civil,  as  well  as  a 
federal,  law. 

The  still  itself  was  a  curious  crea- 
tion. The  main  part  of  the  appa- 
ratus was  constructed  of  an  old  coffee 
pot,  connecting  with  the  spout  of  which 
were  tin  and  glass  tubes,  fastened  to- 
gether with  pieces  of  rubber,  string  and 
canvas,  presenting  a  most  grotesque  ap- 
pearance, but  capable  of  producing  a  dis- 
tilled liquor,  drop  by  drop,  quite  as  deadly 
as  the  most  approved  Tennessee  moon- 
shine. The  substance  used  for  the  dis- 
tillation was  the  drippings  from  the  mo- 
lasses barrels  in  a  neighboring  room  of  the 
basement.  Indeed  it  was  these  drippings 
that  first  suggested  to  the  "trusty,"  who 
had  seen  rum  made  in  the  West  Indies, 
146 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

the  possibility  of  making  a  still.  A  little 
premeditated  carelessness  on  the  part  of 
another  "trusty,"  whose  duty  was  to 
draw  the  molasses  for  the  cook,  supplied 
the  still  bountifully  with  material,  with  the 
result  that  illicit  liquor  of  home  manufac- 
ture became  a  medium  of  traffic  among  the 
City's  elect,  for  several  months.  A  tea- 
spoonful  of  "moonshine"  was  worth  a 
good  chew  of  tobacco  (the  usual  basis  of 
City  traffic)  at  any  time ;  and  a  good  busi- 
ness had  been  carried  on  in  all  kinds  of 
articles  of  exchange.  The  Citizen-distiller 
had  become  a  power  in  the  community,  like 
many  of  his  prototypes  outside,  and  his 
downfall  came  as  a  public  calamity. 

But  laxity  in  vigilance  is  a  fault,  not  a 
sin.  There  is  one  abiding  sin  common  to 
every  Walled  City,  however, — the  tend- 
ency of  certain  members  of  the  commun- 
ity, from  the  head  officer  down  to  the 
smallest  bell-boy,  at  times  to  "take 
147 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

chances,"  as  railroad  men  say.  Indeed, 
if  this  sinful  tendency  among  the  keepers 
of  the  City  could  be  eliminated  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  any  inmate  would  ever  be  able  to 
make  his  escape,  or  any  of  the  numerous 
City  tragedies  be  recorded. 

One  unfamiliar  with  the  routine  life  in 
the  Walled  Cities  would  naturally  suppose 
that  the  instinct  of  self-protection  would 
be  asserting  itself  so  constantly  to  every 
official  and  employe  that  there  would  be 
little  danger  of  this  chance-taking.  Know- 
ing as  they  do  that  it  is  the  ambition  of 
every  active  member  of  the  community  to 
escape — that  there  is  nothing,  not  even 
murder,  that  would  restrain  many  of  them 
from  seizing  an  opportunity  to  try  to  get 
out  if  there  was  even  a  reasonable  chance 
of  success — one  would  think  that  there 
would  be  little  probability  of  laxity  in  vigi- 
lance, even  for  a  moment.  But  in  point  of 
fact  it  requires  constant  spurring  and 
148 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

ceaseless  watching  on  the  part  of  the  chief 
officers  to  keep  the  men  closest  in  touch 
with  the  prisoners  from  becoming  almost 
criminally  careless.  The  proximity  of 
danger  makes  them  hold  it  in  contempt; 
or  better,  perhaps,  they  forget  its  pres- 
ence. 

One  of  the  most  desperate  attempts  to 
escape  ever  recorded  came  about  through 
gross  carelessness  in  the  kitchen  of  one 
of  the  Walled  Cities.  In  this  institution 
the  kitchen  knives, — some  of  them  long, 
deadly,  dagger-like  weapons, — which  were 
supposed  to  be  chained  in  place  at  all 
times,  were  detached  from  their  chains 
and  allowed  to  lie  around  the  rooms,  be- 
cause the  cooks  found  it  more  convenient 
to  have  them  so.  And,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  this  particular  form  of  carelessness 
as  regards  kitchen  knives  is  not  peculiar 
to  any  one  particular  City,  but  is  the  abid- 
ing sin  of  many  of  the  criminal  hospitals, 
149 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

In  this  particular  instance  this  care- 
lessness led  to  a  blood-curdling  tragedy. 
But  nevertheless  by  the  time  a  year  had 
passed  the  knives  were  again  to  be  seen 
lying  about  detached  from  their  chains,  in- 
viting a  disaster,  as  before. 

The  convict  who  played  the  leading  role 
in  the  tragedy  in  question  was  a  man 
named  Barker,  who  had  been  detailed  to 
help  in  the  kitchen.  Like  most  of  the  work 
about  the  "Walled  Cities,  a  good  part  of 
the  kitchen  duties  are  done  by  the  inmates, 
despite  the  fact  that  dangerous  weapons 
must  be  used  in  preparing  the  meals.  The 
kitchen  of  a  City  having  a  thousand  in- 
habitants is  ordinarily  under  the  manage- 
ment of  perhaps  three  paid  cooks  and 
keepers,  assisted  by  a  dozen  or  more  in- 
mates. Naturally  these  inmates  are  care- 
fully selected,  and  presumably  are 
"trusty"  patients;  but  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand how  mistakes  may  be  made,  since 
150 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

the  men  selected  are  not  only  convicts  and 
prisoners,  but  insane. 

Although  a  long-term  prisoner,  Barker 
was  given  a  position  in  the  kitchen  at  the 
request  of  the  chef,  because  of  the  man's 
reputation  as  a  good  cook  and  general 
worker.  Closely  watched  at  first,  this  new 
man  gradually  gained  the  confidence  of 
the  chef  and  the  other  cooks  by  diligence 
and  good  behavior,  until  finally  he  was 
given  practically  as  much  liberty  about  the 
kitchen  as  the  keepers  themselves. 

Almost  everything  about  the  kitchen 
was  under  lock  and  key — a  great  incon- 
venience at  times  during  the  rush  hours 
of  getting  out  the  meals.  And  it  fre- 
quently happened  that,  just  when  the  chef 
or  his  assistants  were  elbows  deep  in  some 
important  culinary  operation,  something 
would  be  needed  from  the  carefully  locked 
refrigerators  or  store  rooms.  To  stop  and 
wash  the  hands^  get  the  keys  from  the 
151 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

pocket,  and  open  the  doors  was  incon- 
venient. And  so  many  times  Barker  was 
asked  to  fish  out  the  bunch  of  keys  from 
the  chef's  pocket  and  do  the  errand  for 
him. 

Such  a  thing  as  this  would  not  be  coun- 
tenanced for  a  moment  by  the  Superin- 
tendent had  he  known  about  it.  Yet  on 
the  face  of  it  there  would  seem  to  be  little 
danger,  even  if  Barker  had  been  a  danger- 
ous patient.  For  most  of  the  keys  on  the 
ring  were  of  the  small,  fluted  kind,  that 
defy  the  skeleton-key  maker  unless  he  can 
have  a  very  exact  pattern  of  them.  No 
man  simply  by  looking  at  any  one  of  them 
for  a  very  little  time  could  fashion  a  du- 
plicate, even  if  he  had  the  tools  and  the 
blank  key  to  work  upon.  Furthermore  the 
keys  opened  only  the  doors  to  the  refrig- 
erators and  store  rooms,  or  at  least  this 
was  true  of  all  but  one.  But  this  one,  Bar- 
ker had  observed,  opened  the  door  lead- 
152 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

ing  into  the  basement;  and  as  there  were 
doors  leading  from  the  basement  to  the 
outside  world,  he  drew  the  very  natural 
conclusion  that  this  same  key  would  un- 
lock them  also. 

One  day  while  he  was  busy  scrubbing 
some  pans  he  was  given  the  bunch  of  keys 
and  asked  to  do  an  errand  in  the  refrig- 
erator. At  that  time,  in  the  dish  he  was 
washing,  was  a  cake  of  the  brick-like  hos- 
pital soap,  which  had  become  softened  by 
lying  in  the  water.  Picking  up  the  cake 
of  soap,  Barker  took  the  keys  and  started 
for  the  refrigerator,  as  usual.  On  the  way, 
however,  he  selected  the  key  to  the  base- 
ment, and  as  he  walked  along  he  pressed 
it  firmly  into  the  surface  of  the  softened 
soap.  The  result  was  a  perfect  impres- 
sion of  the  coveted  key.  The  next  step 
was  to  allow  the  soap  to  harden,  which 
Barker  managed  without  being  detected, 
and  later  he  cut  out  the  portion  of  the 
153 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

cake  around  the  model  of  the  key,  and 
hid  the  impression  in  his  clothing. 

Two  weeks  later  Barker's  wife  paid  him 
a  visit,  as  she  was  permitted  to  do  at 
stated  intervals.  At  these  visits  between 
patients  and  friends  a  guard  is  usually 
stationed  within  a  few  feet  of  the  couples 
to  see  that  nothing  is  passed  from  one  to 
the  other  without  close  inspection.  As  an 
additional  precaution  the  patient  is  always 
searched  before  being  returned  to  the 
wards  to  see  that  nothing  contraband  has 
been  given  him.  The  possibility  of  the 
inmate  passing  out  anything  is  usually  ig- 
nored, as  he  usually  has  nothing  to  pass 
out.  And  so  while  Barker  was  holding  the 
trim  little  woman  in  his  arms  for  the  mo- 
mentary caress  that  even  the  most  hard- 
ened guard  would  have  hesitated  to  deny 
him,  the  little  piece  of  soap  bearing  the 
key  impression  was  transferred  into  her 
keeping.  Later  when  she  was  telling  her 
154 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

husband  all  about  the  friends  outside  and 
the  little  ones  at  home,  asking  and  answer- 
ing eager  questions,  he  managed  to  tell 
what  he  wished  her  to  do  with  the  piece 
of  soap. 

One  month  later  Mrs.  Barker  came 
again  to  see  her  husband,  and  there  was 
exchanged  the  same  affectionate  caress  as 
before.  There  was  also  transferred  from 
between  the  fingers  of  the  little  woman's 
hand  a  new  brass  key,  made  by  the  best 
key-maker  on  the  Bowery  from  the  im- 
pression taken  in  the  soap  six  weeks  be- 
fore. As  a  thousand  other  daughters  of 
Eve  would  have  done,  the  woman  had 
spent  almost  her  last  penny,  and  was  even 
then  jeopardizing  her  liberty  to  help  her 
man  in  distress.  Fortunately  for  her,  the 
examination  of  her  husband's  clothing  be- 
fore he  returned  to  the  ward  was  not  a 
rigorous  one. 

With  the  key  fairly  in  his  possession, 
155 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Barker  bided  his  time.  It  came  one  day 
when  the  work  in  the  kitchen  was  finished, 
and  when  he  was  supposed  to  have  gone 
out  into  the  yards  as  usual,  but  had  in 
reality  lingered  behind.  An  assistant  cook 
was  the  only  person  about  the  place,  and 
he  was  busy  giving  the  finishing  touches, 
among  other  things  counting  the  knives 
before  locking  them  up.  While  he  was 
thus  engaged  something  called  him  into 
another  room  for  a  moment,  detaining  him 
just  long  enough  to  give  Barker  time  to 
steal  over  and  secure  a  long,  deadly  carv- 
ing knife.  The  next  minute  the  criminal 
was  in  the  short  passageway  leading  to 
the  basement,  had  slipped  his  key  into  the 
lock,  and  pushed  open  the  door.  As  he 
closed  it  the  cook  returned,  just  in  time  to 
see  the  movement  of  the  door. 

Barker  had  heard  the  man's  footsteps, 
and  did  not  attempt  to  turn  the  lock  for 
the  moment,   simply  holding  it  with  his 
156 


a  1 


z  *• 

**-« 
*     O 


W   .2 

^     o 

O    a 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

shoulder,  and  trusting  that  the  movement 
had  not  been  seen.  But,  unfortunately  for 
himself,  the  cook  had  seen  it,  and  made 
a  dash  for  the  door,  knowing  instinctively 
that  something  was  wrong.  The  next 
thing  he  knew  he  was  lying  on  the  base- 
ment floor  stunned  from  the  effects  of  a 
blow,  with  Barker  standing  over  him  hold- 
ing the  long  knife  at  his  throat,  and  whis- 
pering that  if  he  made  a  sound  it  would 
be  his  last.  A  moment  later  the  cook 
found  his  white  apron  twisted  about  his 
face  and  tied  tightly  into  a  gag  so  that 
he  could  not  make  a  sound  even  if  he  had 
dared  to  try.  Next  his  trousers  were  re- 
moved and  torn  into  convenient  strips, 
with  which  Barker  tied  his  captive 's  hands 
and  feet,  finally  dragging  him  into  a  dark 
corner  and  leaving  him,  with  a  whispered 
warning  that  any  movement  on  his  part 
meant  death. 

With  his  prisoner  secured  so  that  he 
157 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

could  leave  him  safely,  Barker  now  ex- 
amined the  basement  carefully.  He  soon 
found  the  door  leading  to  the  outside ;  but 
although  his  key  turned  the  lock,  the  door 
would  not  open;  there  was  a  second  lock 
that  worked  only  from  the  outside,  placed 
there  by  a  wise  designer  to  defeat  just 
such  attempts  as  the  one  Barker  was  mak- 
ing. No  outside  door  in  the  institution 
could  be  opened  except  by  two  entirely  dif- 
ferent keys  worked  from  opposite  sides. 
Barker  was  foiled  and  trapped. 

In  all  probability  the  cook  and  he  would 
be  missed  from  their  usual  places  within 
a  few  hours  at  most.  Once  discovered,  it 
was  little  short  of  madness  to  resist;  but 
Barker  was  not  the  man  to  surrender 
meekly.  He  knew  that  he  could  expect 
little  mercy  from  the  searching  party,  as 
his  assault  upon  the  cook  and  the  fact  that 
he  was  armed  with  a  deadly  weapon  would 
warrant  the  officers  in  taking  desperate 
158 


SHORTCOMINGS  OF  THE  CITY  RULERS 

measures.  His  only  hope  lay  in  being  able 
to  modify  his  terms  of  surrender  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  by  holding  the  cook  as  a  hos- 
tage. 

With  this  in  mind,  he  selected  a  little 
room  used  for  storage  in  one  corner  of 
the  basement  as  best  suited  to  his  pur- 
pose. The  room  was  empty,  and  the  heavy 
door  of  rough  boards  that  closed  the  en- 
trance was  not  locked.  Into  this  room 
Barker  dragged  his  captive,  carefully  bar- 
ring and  bracing  the  door  on  the  inside 
with  pieces  of  boards,  penning  himself  in 
to  await  the  coming  of  the  inevitable 
search  party. 

The  details  of  how  he  held  the  officers 
at  bay  for  several  hours  before  he  was 
finally  overcome  need  not  be  told  here. 
But  the  ultimate  effect  of  this  episode 
upon  the  existing  carelessness  about  the 
knives  in  the  kitchen  is  interesting.  The 
following  day  every  knife  was  securely 
159 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

chained  in  its  proper  place.  A  month 
later  they  were  still  chained,  but  the 
chains  were  looked  upon  as  intolerable 
nuisances  by  the  cooks.  Within  a  year 
every  chain  had  disappeared. 

Some  day  there  will  be  another  tragedy 
in  that  kitchen.  And  then  the  temporary 
chaining  will  be  repeated  for  a  few 
months. 


160 


Chapter  VII 
WITS   VERSUS   THE   LONG   ARM 


161 


Anyone  who  has  seen  the  attempt  made 
to  use  a  chair  as  a  weapon  by  "clubbing" 
it  in  the  usual  way  must  have  been  im- 
prest with  the  fact  that  it  was  a  poor 
weapon  indeed.  Heavy  and  clumsy,  it  can 
be  easily  avoided,  either  by  dodging,  or  by 
guarding  with  the  hands.  But  there  are 
methods  of  using  a  chair  which  make  it 
one  of  the  best  of  weapons  for  disabling 
a  man  temporarily.  For  this  reason  the 
chairs  about  the  halls  of  the  Walled  Cities 
are  all  made  so  heavy  and  so  strong  that 
they  can  neither  be  lifted  about  easily,  nor 
pulled  apart  to  be  used  as  clubs. 

In  a  western  City  a  few  years  ago  a  des- 
163 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

perate  criminal  succeeded  in  wrenching  a 
pocket  knife  from  an  attendant's  hand  and 
stabbing  him  into  insensibility  before  as- 
sistance arrived.  When  the  other  attend- 
ants did  reach  the  scene  the  criminal 
backed  into  a  corner  waving  his  bloody 
knife,  keeping  them  at  a  safe  distance.  To 
rush  upon  the  man  barehanded  meant  cer- 
tain injury,  perhaps  death,  to  some  of 
their  number. 

At  that  moment  the  chief  physician,  a 
man  of  unusual  strength  and  courage,  who 
had  grown  gray  in  the  service,  came  into 
the  ward.  Taking  in  the  situation  at  a 
glance,  he  unlocked  the  door  of  an  attend- 
ant's room  that  connected  with  the  hall, 
seized  a  light  bent-wood  chair,  and  grasp- 
ing the  back  and  holding  it  in  front  of  him 
with  the  four  legs  pointing  at  the  culprit, 
he  rushed  upon  him,  pinning  him  to  the 
wall,  where  he  was  quickly  disarmed. 

TJsed  in  this  manner  a  chair  becomes  an 
164 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

effective  weapon,  particularly  in  defense 
against  a  knife.  The  length  of  the  legs 
and  back  places  the  user  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  blade,  while  the  four  points  pre- 
sented simultaneously  by  the  legs  make 
guarding  almost  impossible.  And  no  mat- 
ter how  or  where  these  points  happen  to 
strike  they  are  certain  either  to  injure  or 
pin  their  victim. 

In  most  of  the  attempted  escapes  from 
the  various  Walled  Cities  there  is  nothing 
to  elicit  sympathy  for  the  offender,  except 
the  very  natural  human  tendency  to  favor 
the  under  dog.  But  occasionally  such 
clever  attempts  are  made  under  such  pe- 
culiar circumstances  that  one  feels  them 
deserving  of  success.  When  an  inmate 
whose  insanity  is  questioned,  and  whose 
reputation  for  cleverness  is  such  that  he 
has  special  guards  watching  him  day  and 
night,  and  is  kept  in  a  building  without 
windows  except  in  the  roof,  thirty  feet 
165 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

from  the  floor — when  such  a  criminal  es- 
capes and  actually  gets  outside  the  walls, 
one  cannot  suppress  the  hope  that  he  will 
not  be  captured,  much  as  he  may  deserve 
to  be. 

Such  an  escape  was  made  a  few  years 
ago  by  a  man  who  was  known  in  the  East 
at  the  time  by  the  name  of  Dan  Hicks,  but 
who  is  known  to  the  police  of  most  of  the 
cities  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco 
by  a  dozen  other  aliases.  He  was  a  man 
only  about  thirty  years  of  age  at  that  time, 
but  most  of  those  thirty  years  had  been 
spent  in  dodging  officers  and  "doing 
time. ' ' 

He  had  many  of  those  qualities  which 
make  the  criminal  of  fiction  interesting. 
He  was  good-natured,  generous  when  he 
had  money,  a  good  fighter,  and  endowed 
with  an  abiding  sense  of  humor.  But  all 
these  excellent  qualities  did  not  prevent 
the  judge  who  presided  at  one  of  his  trials 
166 


WITS   VERSUS    THE    LONG   ARM 

for  "second-story  work"  from  sentencing 
him  to  fifteen  years'  imprisonment. 

Like  every  other  convict  under  similar 
circumstances,  Hicks  had  no  intention  of 
spending  any  such  amount  of  time  in 
prison.  He  felt  confident  that  by  using  his 
unusually  sharp  wits  in  the  right  direction 
he  could  cut  down  that  sentence  by  a  large 
margin.  In  the  end  he  succeeded,  but  not 
until  he  had  run  the  entire  gamut  of  tricks 
and  subterfuges  known  to  the  members  of 
his  fraternity. 

For  the  first  few  months  in  prison 
Hicks  did  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary. 
Then  he  gradually  became  insane,  or  else 
he  did  one  of  the  cleverest  pieces  of  pro- 
tracted feigning  on  record.  Indeed,  to  the 
very  last,  when  he  finally  left  the  Walled 
City  with  a  governor's  pardon  in  his 
pocket,  the  medical  experts  were  about 
equally  divided  as  to  whether  he  had  ever 
been  insane  at  all,  or  whether  he  was  not 
167 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

insane  still,  but  cleverly  covering  up  Ms 
delusions. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  he  had  the  prison  offi- 
cials suspecting  him  of  insanity  within  a 
year  after  going  to  the  prison.  He  cer- 
tainly showed  many  symptoms  of  insanity, 
such  as  mumbling  to  himself,  refusing  to 
eat  most  of  the  time,  and  a  dozen  other 
things  that  are  strongly  characteristic  of 
certain  mental  aberrations.  After  a 
month  of  this  sort  of  thing  he  was  placed 
in  a  cell  where  he  could  be  observed  se- 
cretly night  and  day.  But  if  he  was  sham- 
ming he  was  never  caught  napping  or  off 
his  guard,  and  at  the  end  of  another  month 
he  was  transferred  from  prison  to  the 
Walled  City. 

As  he  was  still  under  suspicion,  he  was 
placed  in  what  is  known  as  an  "isolation" 
ward,  a  building  having  the  position  and 
all  the  characteristics  of  the  "keep"  or 
"donjon"  of  medieval  castles  and  walled 
168 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG   ARM 

cities.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  tower  per- 
haps fifty  feet  square,  and  about  forty  feet 
high,  and  there  were  no  windows  except  a 
huge  skylight  at  the  top.  The  only  open- 
ing in  the  structure  was  a  heavily  arched 
doorway,  guarded  by  two  double-locked 
doors. 

The  interior  was  therefore  light  and 
airy,  but  as  the  walls  were  thick  and  the 
skylight  some  thirty  feet  from  the  floors, 
it  seemed  a  hopeless  place  from  which  to 
make  an  escape.  And  even  if  escape  were 
made  from  this  building  itself,  the  task 
would  be  only  half  completed,  since  it  was 
surrounded  completely  by  other  buildings 
whose  walls  would  have  to  be  scaled. 
These  last  did  not  constitute  such  an  ob- 
stacle as  might  be  supposed,  as  there  were 
water  pipes  leading  from  the  roof  of  these 
buildings  to  the  ground  at  that  time,  al- 
tho  shortly  after  Hicks'  escape  these  were 
removed. 

169 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

In  this  isolation  ward  there  were  never 
more  than  a  dozen  Citizens,  but  these  were 
always  the  most  dangerous  ones,  fre- 
quently men  who  had  attempted  to  escape 
or  were  violent  and  needed  special  watch- 
ing. Special  guards  watched  this  ward 
by  day  and  a  special  night  watchman 
guarded  it  at  night. 

When  Hicks  reached  this  place  of  con- 
finement, his  hope  of  escaping  must  have 
taken  a  violent  slump.  But  nevertheless 
he  set  to  work,  and  by  being  obedient  and 
always  willing  to  assist  in  the  work  about 
the  ward,  which  is  considered  a  very  com- 
mendable trait  with  all  keepers,  he  soon 
got  into  the  good  graces  of  his  guardians. 
Within  three  months  he  had  made  a  record 
for  scrubbing,  sweeping,  and  keeping 
things  clean  generally,  and  was  given  the 
entire  charge  of  caring  for  his  own  room 
and  several  others. 

One  morning  while  sweeping  his  own 
170 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

room  he  discovered  that  one  of  the  slates 
in  the  baseboard  was  loose.  The  slate  was 
about  fourteen  inches  long  and  eleven 
inches  high,  and  so  loose  that  by  a  little 
turning  and  forcing  it  could  be  pulled  out, 
exposing  the  brick  wall  behind  it.  Fortu- 
nately the  position  of  this  loosened  slate 
was  behind  the  bed,  so  that  nobody  would 
notice  it  unless  the  bed  was  moved  out  of 
its  place.  With  a  nail  or  a  piece  of  iron 
it  would  be  possible  to  scrape  the  mortar 
out  between  the  bricks,  little  by  little,  and 
finally  make  a  hole  large  enough  for  a 
man's  body. 

Hicks  knew  he  could  find  a  piece  of  iron 
or  tin  about  the  courtyard  in  which  the 
inmates  spend  several  hours  each  day,  but 
he  knew  also  that  it  would  not  be  an  easy 
matter  to  get  it  into  his  room.  His  cloth- 
ing had  no  pockets,  and  besides,  like  all 
the  other  inmates,  he  was  searched  as  he 
came  in  from  the  court  each  day,  a  guard 
171 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

running  his  hand  over  his  clothing  to  de- 
tect any  suspicious  lumps. 

As  he  expected,  Hicks  at  last  found  a 
rusty  nail  in  the  courtyard,  and  he  de- 
cided to  try  to  smuggle  it  in  by  putting  it 
into  his  shoe  on  the  under  side  of  his  foot. 
It  was  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  get 
the  nail  into  his  shoe  without  being  seen, 
for  the  court  is  large  and  the  prisoners  are 
allowed  a  great  deal  of  liberty ;  but  getting 
by  the  guard  at  the  door  might  not  be  so 
easy.  Fortune  favored  him,  however,  and 
he  carried  the  nail  safely  to  his  room,  the 
guard  letting  him  pass  after  hastily  pull- 
ing open  his  coat,  and  running  his  hand 
over  his  shirt  front. 

That  night  Hicks  cautiously  pushed  his 
bed  out  about  a  foot  from  the  wall.  Then, 
lying  on  his  side,  and  without  leaving  the 
bed,  he  carefully  forced  out  the  slate,  and 
began  scratching  softly  at  the  mortar  be- 
tween the  bricks,  keeping  part  of  the 
172 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

blanket  wrapt  about  his  hands  and 
prest  against  the  wall  to  deaden  the 
sound,  and  spreading  the  corner  of  the 
sheets  on  the  floor  beneath  the  hole  so  that 
there  could  be  no  sound  from  dropping 
bits  of  mortar.  The  ceaseless  snoring 
about  him  helped  greatly,  but  he  had  to 
work  with  heart-breaking  slowness,  and 
every  movement  of  the  guard  made  him 
lie  as  if  petrified. 

All  night  long  he  scratched  out  and  col- 
lected bits  of  mortar,  but  when  dawn  be- 
gan to  break  he  carefully  replaced  the 
slate,  gathered  up  the  little  pile  of  mortar, 
and  slept  until  rising  time.  The  tiny  load 
of  mortar  (about  as  much  as  would  coat 
a  twenty-five-cent  piece)  was  easily  slipped 
down  the  drain  pipe  in  the  wash  room  next 
morning.  Every  night  following  he  con- 
tinued his  work,  and  every  night  the  risk 
of  detection  increased.  For  the  more 
bricks  he  loosened  the  more  he  had  to  re- 
173 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

place,  and  the  greater  was  the  probability 
of  his  making  a  noise. 

It  was  four  full  months  before  he  had 
loosened  the  inner  layers,  and  another  be- 
fore he  had  reached  the  last  course  of 
brick.  When  this  was  reached  he  waited 
for  a  favorable  night,  one  in  which  there 
was  a  pounding  rainstorm  that  would 
make  a  continuous  roar  on  the  skylights 
above,  so  that  his  movements  would  not  be 
detected  easily. 

The  night  came  at  last  with  wind  and  a 
downpour  of  rain,  and  as  soon  as  it  was 
well  on  toward  midnight  Hicks  removed 
the  bricks  softly,  one  by  one,  and  gradu- 
ally worked  loose  and  removed  the  last 
layer.  Then  he  took  off  his  shirt  and  be- 
gan to  worm  his  way  out  through  the  hole, 
head  first,  keeping  one  arm  held  down 
close  to  his  side  and  the  other  straight  out 
above  his  head. 

It  took  him  a  full  half  hour  to  struggle 
174 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG   ARM 

out,  bricks  and  mortar  gouging  his  flesh 
as  he  went,  but  he  squeezed  through  at  last 
and  fell  in  a  heap  in  the  mud  four  feet  be- 
low. Then  he  discovered  that  he  had  laid 
his  shirt  just  out  of  his  reach,  but  he  suc- 
ceeded in  catching  hold  of  a  corner  of  the 
blanket  and  pulled  it  out.  He  tied  this 
about  him  securely,  and  running  across 
the  court  to  a  corner  where  an  iron  leader 
came  down  to  the  ground,  went  up  it  hand 
over  hand,  and  climbed  over  the  eaves  on 
the  roof.  He  found  a  rain  pipe  on  the 
opposite  side,  and,  after  waiting  a  minute 
to  look  up  and  down  for  the  watchman,  he 
swung  over  the  eaves,  gript  the  pipe 
with  his  feet,  and  slid  down  until  he  could 
rest  one  foot  on  the  window  cap,  and  then 
slid  rapidly  to  the  ground,  and  ran  into 
a  hollow,  where  he  was  hidden  from  the 
building. 

There  he  made  his  blanket  into  a  kind 
of  toga,  to  protect  him  in  a  measure  until 
175 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

he  could  reach  the  neighboring  village, 
where  by  plying  his  "trade"  a  little  he 
hoped  to  secure  more  comfortable  and  less 
conspicuous  wearing  apparel  from  some  of 
the  houses.  Before  morning  he  had  suc- 
ceeded, and  by  the  following  evening  he 
was  safely  in  New  York. 

The  fact  that  he  had  escaped  was  not 
discovered  until  several  hours  after  he 
had  gone,  the  watchman's  suspicions  being 
first  aroused  by  hearing  the  rain  spatter- 
ing through  the  hole  in  the  brick  wall. 
Even  then  he  could  scarcely  believe  that 
Hicks  had  escaped,  as  the  hole  was  so 
small.  It  seemed  absolutely  impossible 
that  any  man  could  have  gone  through  it. 
But  the  sizes  of  holes  that  criminals  have 
squeezed  themselves  through  at  various 
times  seem  to  defy  the  very  laws  of  an- 
atomy. 

If  other  evidence  had  been  wanting, 
however,  there  were  Hicks'  tell-tale  tracks 
176 


WITS    VERSUS    THE   LONG   ARM 

across  the  yard,  and  through  the  fields  to 
the  railroad  tracks.  But  as  they  could  be 
traced  no  farther  than  this  a  general 
search  was  instigated,  with  very  little  hope 
of  success,  and  the  police  of  New  York 
notified. 

When  a  criminal  from  any  large  city 
escapes  from  prison  and  makes  his  way 
to  his  old  haunts,  he  is  almost  sure  of 
speedy  recapture.  Most  fugitives  know 
this,  but  they  can  seldom  resist  the  allure- 
ments of  their  old  haunts.  Here  they  are 
sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  seen  by  the 
officers  who  are  on  the  lookout  for  them, 
and  taken  into  custody.  This  happens  so 
frequently  that  when  a  fugitive  is  known 
to  have  gone  back  to  the  city  from  which 
he  comes  there  is  a  feeling  of  relief  in  the 
Walled  City  official  circle,  as  in  all  proba- 
bility it  will  be  only  a  matter  of  days  until 
he  is  returned  to  them.  When  a  city  con- 
vict remains  in  the  country  or  hangs  about 
177 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

small  villages  he  is  less  likely  to  be  recap- 
tured. 

Hicks,  as  we  have  seen,  was  no  ordinary 
convict.  He  returned  to  the  city,  to  be 
sure,  but  he  did  not  seek  out  his  old  asso- 
ciates or  visit  his  familiar  haunts.  Instead 
he  went  into  a  neighborhood  where  he  had 
never  lived  before.  Here  he  secured  a 
small  room  in  a  house  opposite  a  police 
station,  where  he  could  be  seen  by  the  offi- 
cers at  almost  any  time  by  raising  their 
eyes  to  his  window.  There  was  a  certain 
guarantee  of  safety,  he  figured,  in  being  so 
close  to  the  officers'  noses  that  they  would 
look  over  him.  His  boldness  even  ex- 
tended to  doing  little  jobs  about  the  sta- 
tion house  from  time  to  time,  and  he  came 
to  be  well  acquainted  with  many  of  the 
officers. 

His  greatest  fear  was  that  some  of  the 
officers  from  his  old  haunts  would  be  trans- 
ferred to  his  new  precinct.  But  he  knew 
178 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

every  blue-coat  in  his  old  walks,  and  was 
prepared  to  move  suddenly  should  any  of 
them  put  in  an  appearance  at  the  station 
house. 

He  had  been  out  several  months,  and 
had  come  to  look  upon  his  continued  lib- 
erty as  assured,  altho  he  had  not  al- 
lowed himself  to  become  careless,  when 
one  day  the  inevitable  happened.  He  had 
just  boarded  a  street  car  in  one  of  the  re- 
spectable neighborhoods,  when  some  one 
tapt  him  on  the  shoulder.  He  looked 
around  into  the  faces  of  two  of  the  officers 
from  the  City  who  had  thus  stumbled 
upon  him  accidentally. 

His  first  impulse,  of  course,  was  to 
fight;  and  if  there  had  seemed  even  a 
ghost  of  a  chance  he  would  have  fought 
to  a  finish.  But  he  was  unarmed  and 
taken  by  surprise,  and  outnumbered  two 
to  one.  So  he  adopted  what  seemed  to  be 
the  next  best  course.  He  asked  to  be  al- 
179 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

lowed  to  speak  with  them  in  private,  and 
a  three-cornered  conference  took  place  at 
the  next  street  corner.  He  begged  for  his 
liberty,  since  he  could  not  fight  for  it, 
swearing  to  the  officers  that  he  was  then 
living  an  honest  life,  and  promising  to  con- 
tinue doing  so.  He  pictured  the  horrors 
of  what  a  return  to  captivity  meant  to 
him,  and  used  his  arguments  so  well  that 
he  came  near  winning  his  case.  But  in  the 
end  the  best  terms  he  could  make  was  a 
promise  from  his  captors  that  they  would 
"say  a  good  word"  for  him  to  the  Super- 
intendent, telling  how  meekly  he  had  sur- 
rendered. 

When  Hicks  arrived  at  the  City  he  was 
clapped  into  the  isolation  ward  again ;  and 
this  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  was  there  to 
stay.  At  least  there  was  little  fear  of  his 
picking  his  way  out  through  the  walls  with 
a  rusty  nail,  since  the  rooms  had  all  been 

freshly  lined,   floors,  walls   and   ceilings, 
180 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

with  thin  sheet  steel — thanks  to  the  lesson 
taught  by  Hicks*  handiwork  a  few  months 
before.  But  Hicks  was  by  no  means 
through  with  the  game.  He  had  played 
what  seemed  to  be  his  best  card,  to  be  sure, 
but  he  still  held  others  that  were  worth 
playing. 

To  all  appearances  he  was  indeed  a 
changed  man  from  the  one  that  had  been 
in  the  City  a  few  months  before.  He  him- 
self earnestly  asserted  that  there  had  been 
an  entire  change  in  his  life;  that  he  had 
turned  from  evil  ways,  and  had  not  done 
a  dishonest  act  since  escaping.  While  his 
punishment  and  imprisonment  were  irk- 
some to  him,  he  said  that  he  knew  they 
were  just,  and  that  he  should  serve  out 
his  term  without  any  further  trouble  to 
anyone.  When  it  was  completed  he  would 
go  outside  and  lead  an  honest  life.  He  had 
become  a  Christian,  in  proof  of  which  he 
referred  to  a  certain  Salvation  Army 
181 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

leader  with  whom  he  claimed  he  had  been 
working  while  in  the  city.  All  that  he 
asked  was  that  he  be  given  an  opportunity 
to  work,  and  permission  to  read  his  Bible 
at  times. 

This,  coming  from  Jim  Hicks,  was 
looked  upon  as  a  huge  joke  by  most  of 
the  officials  in  the  city,  who  are  prone  to 
become  skeptical  about  the  actual  refor- 
mation of  the  "reformed  criminal."  But 
to  all  external  appearances,  at  least,  Hicks 
was  no  longer  the  Hicks  of  old.  He 
worked  and  said  his  prayers  and  read  his 
Bible  regularly,  refusing  to  play  cards, 
and  stopt  using  tobacco.  In  short,  he 
was  simply  the  meek  and  humble  lamb, 
still  wearing  the  external  appearance  of 
the  erstwhile  lion  Hicks. 

For  several  months  this  had  no  ap- 
parent effect  upon  any  of  the  officials.  It 
was  looked  upon  simply  as  another  of 
Hicks'  long-headed  games.  But  one  day 
182 


WITS    VERSUS    THE   LONG   ARM 

he  asked  to  see  the  Superintendent,  and 
in  private  revealed  to  that  officer  a  plot 
to  escape  that  some  of  the  men  on  another 
ward  were  planning.  Coming  from  Hicks, 
this  was  a  surprise,  for  he  was  no  tattler, 
and,  as  he  was  not  implicated  or  concerned 
directly  in  this  plot  in  any  way,  his  rea- 
sons for  telling  were  inquired.  His  reply 
was  the  one  that  he  had  been  giving  for 
six  months— that  he  had  really  reformed, 
and  wished  to  prove  it. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  opinion  of 
the  Superintendent  at  the  time  as  to  Hicks ' 
sincerity,  it  is  certain  that  his  story  of  the 
plot  was  most  useful,  and  helped  in  de- 
feating an  attempt  that  otherwise  would 
in  all  probability  have  been  successful. 
As  a  reward,  Hicks  was  transferred  from 
the  isolation  ward  to  a  more  cheerful  one. 
Here  his  piety  and  good  behavior  contin- 
ued, and  gradually  he  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  many  of  the  officials,  who  believed 
183 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

that  lie  had  really  changed  for  the  better. 
Among  these  was  the  kind-hearted  and 
somewhat  too  susceptible  Superintendent 
himself. 

Almost  another  year  passed  without 
anything  of  importance  occurring,  and 
then  Hicks  was  given  another  opportunity 
of  showing  his  colors.  Another  great  plot 
to  escape  was  in  progress,  unsuspected  by 
the  officials.  Here  again  there  was  no  rea- 
son for  Hicks  concerning  himself  in  the 
matter,  but  nevertheless  he  kept  the  Su- 
perintendent informed  until  the  thing  was 
ripe  for  crushing,  when  it  was  cut  short, 
as  the  one  had  been  before. 

The  Superintendent  was  now  convinced 
that  Hicks  had  really  reformed;  and  in 
the  end  he  signed  an  application  to  the 
governor  of  the  state  requesting  that 
Hicks  be  granted  a  full  pardon.  And  so 
just  two  years  after  his  return  to  the  City 
the  second  time,  Hicks  walked  out  into  the 
184 


WITS    VERSUS    THE    LONG    ARM 

world  a  free  man,  pardoned  for  all  past 
offenses. 

Had  Hicks  really  reformed!  Or  was  all 
this  meekness  and  goodness  well-directed 
hypocrisy?  The  Superintendent  believed 
he  was  entirely  sincere  in  his  actions,  and 
that  he  would  live  an  honest  life  outside. 
Most  of  the  other  officials  thought  differ- 
ently. They  believed  that  their  superior 
officer's  sense  of  gratitude  for  the  good 
Hicks  had  done  him  in  revealing  the  plots 
had  prejudiced  his  good  judgment. 

Among  the  keepers  on  the  wards  there 
was  no  difference  in  opinion  on  the  mat- 
ter. Doyle,  the  old  sleuth  who  knew  con- 
victs as  well  as  he  knew  his  own  fingers, 
exprest  the  general  sentiment  of  his  as- 
sociates : 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "Jim  Hicks  may  have 
reformed;  but  if  that's  the  case  he'll  not 
be  botherin'  us   any, — 'cause   he's  dead. 
He'd  never  reform  in  this  world." 
185 


Chapter  VIII 
THE  SHOT 


187 


Chapter  VIII 
THE   SHOT 

The  Japanese  are  credited  with  origi- 
nating the  much-heralded  art  of  "jiu 
jitsu."  But  long  before  the  word  that 
stands  for  joint  twisting,  nerve-squeezing, 
and  muscle-pulling  was  known  in  this 
country,  a  system  of  similar,  if  less  elab- 
orate, disabling  methods  was  known  to 
practically  every  veteran  keeper  in  all  the 
Walled  Cities  of  the  country. 

Without  some  such  effective  system — 
some  system  of  self-defense  that  gave 
them  a  distinct  advantage  over  their 
charges — it  would  have  been  difficult  for 
the  attendants  of  half  a  century  ago  to 
have  kept  some  of  the  more  violent  cases 
189 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

within  bounds,  since  striking  with  the 
closed  hand  was  forbidden  the  attendants, 
altho  no  such  restriction  was  placed 
upon  their  charges.  And  so  ingenious 
keepers,  some  time  early  in  the  history  of 
asylums,  studied  out  an  elaborate  system 
of  what  we  should  now  call  "jiu  jitsu," 
and  this  was  surreptitiously  communi- 
cated to  colleagues  all  over  the  country 
from  Atlantic  to  Pacific.  Surreptitiously, 
since  if  it  had  been  made  public  it  would 
have  been  vigorously  supprest  by  the 
authorities,  no  matter  how  useful  it  might 
be,  in  deference  to  public  opinion  already 
hypersensitive  to  the  subject  of  "asylum 
abuses. "  But  in  point  of  fact,  this  same 
system  of  "American  jiu  jitsu,"  if  it  may 
be  so  called,  was  sometimes  a  merciful  as 
well  as  an  effective  way  of  handling  ex- 
cited and  ungovernable  patients. 

One  of  its  chief  merits,  from  the   at- 
tendant's point  of  view,  was  the  fact  that 
190 


THE    SHOT 

it  could  be  used  without  detection  by  any 
but  an  initiated  onlooker.  This  was  of 
inestimable  value  when  patients  were  be- 
ing escorted  through  places  outside  the 
walls  of  the  City.  At  such  times  Citizens 
are  likely  to  become  excited,  or  take  ad- 
vantage of  their  surroundings  and  the 
sympathy  of  the  gaping  crowds,  which  is 
almost  invariably  with  the  captive,  no 
matter  how  black  a  criminal  he  may  be. 
Under  these  circumstances,  should  he  be- 
come unruly,  and  be  handled  roughly  by 
the  attendant,  even  in  self-defense,  that 
officer  would  more  than  likely  be  set  upon 
and  mobbed  by  the  onlookers.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  one  would  be  likely  to  offer 
more  than  verbal  interference  if  the  officer 
seemed  merely  to  be  holding  his  charge 
firmly. 

Knowing  this,  the  attendant,  orientated 
in  "jiu  jitsu,"  could  take  his  patient  by 
the  arm,  to  all  appearances  simply  holding 
191 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

his  wrist  with  one  hand  and  grasping  his 
upper  arm  just  above  the  elbow  with  the 
other,  and  guide  him  where  he  pleased 
without  much  trouble.  For  unknown  to 
the  spectators,  the  keeper's  fingers,  rest- 
ing apparently  innocently  upon  his 
charge's  elbow,  really  covered  a  large 
nerve  trunk  on  the  inner  side  of  the  elbow 
joint,  where  the  slightest  contraction  of 
his  fingers  could  be  made  to  produce  a  sen- 
sation that  would  bring  any  but  the  most 
unruly  Citizen  under  control. 

This  was  simply  one  of  the  multiform 
methods  of  controlling  patients,  a  score  of 
other  "jiu  jitsu"  twists  and  locks  being 
known  and  used  on  occasion.  None  of 
these  methods  were  countenanced  by  any 
of  the  officers  in  control  of  any  institu- 
tion; and,  in  truth,  a  large  number  of  the 
officers  never  even  suspected  their  exist- 
ence, although  the  attendants  sometimes 
used  them  under  the  very  noses  of  their 
192 


THE    SHOT 

superior  officers,  without  detection,  or 
without  injury  to  the  patient.  And  when 
the  much  advertised  Japanese  jiu  jitsu 
took  the  country  by  storm  as  a  novelty  a 
few  years  ago  these  veteran  attendants 
had  their  little  laugh  all  to  themselves.  It 
wasn't  so  much  of  a  novelty  to  them  as  to 
the  generality  of  people. 

In  former  times,  however,  there  were 
patients,  particularly  those  coming  from 
certain  localities,  who  could  not  be  sub- 
dued by  any  kind  of  physical  force.  I  say 
certain  localities  advisedly,  as  every  alien- 
ist knows  that  the  characteristics  of  the 
patients  of  any  hospital  vary  with  the  lo- 
cality from  which  they  come.  A  maniac 
is  a  maniac,  and  a  melancholiac  a  melan- 
choliac,  of  course,  whether  he  comes  from 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  or  Butte,  Mon- 
tana. But  the  maniac  from  Boston  usu- 
ally exhibits  more  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  Yankee  than  his  far-western  proto- 
193 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

type,  and  vice  versa;  and  this  difference 
has  to  be  taken  into  consideration  in  the 
treatment  qf  the  two  otherwise  similar 
cases.  This  difference  in  patients  of  the 
same  class  was  particularly  striking  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  when  the  west 
was  still  "uncivilized,"  and  many  a 
skilled  eastern  attendant  or  physician,  ac- 
customed to  handling  eastern  patients, 
found  that  there  were  still  new  things  to 
learn  when  he  entered  a  western  hospital. 

The  explanation  of  the  different  charac- 
teristics of  insane  persons  afflicted  with 
the  same  type  of  insanity,  but  coming 
from  different  environments,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  tendency  of  the  insane  mind 
is  to  follow  the  channels  of  thought  long 
established,  rather  than  to  seek  new  ones. 
There  are  marked  exceptions,  of  course, 
but  this  is  the  rule. 

Thus  we  find  that  a  patient  coming  from 
a  well-governed  city,  where  he  has  been 
194 


THE    SHOT 

accustomed  to  granting  authority  to  blue- 
coats  and  brass  buttons, — a  resident  of  the 
Bowery,  for  example, — is  much  less  likely 
to  challenge  the  authority  of  the  brass-but- 
toned attendants  in  charge  of  his  ward, 
than  a  "wild  westerner"  unaccustomed  to 
any  authority  other  than  his  own  sweet 
will.  The  Bowery  man  may  hate  the  brass 
buttons,  but  he  respects  them  intuitively; 
whereas  the  westerner,  being  less  familiar 
with  such  things,  is  less  likely  to  be  simi- 
larly imprest. 

As  a  result,  the  western  cities  in  the 
early  days,  and  indeed  until  the  older  citi- 
zens had  passed  away,  were  far  more  diffi- 
cult to  govern  than  the  eastern  ones.  The 
men  of  the  west  were  accustomed  to  take 
the  law  into  their  own  hands  to  a  great 
extent,  while  those  of  the  east  depended 
upon  officials  and  law-makers.  So  that 
when  the  unfortunate  westerner  became 
an  unwilling  citizen,  he  had  little  idea  of 
195 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

obeying  any  one,  brass-buttoned  or  other- 
wise, without  making  a  hard  fight  against 
it. 

As  a  result,  more  attendants  and 
stronger  attendants  were  necessary  to 
govern  western  Cities  than  corresponding 
institutions  in  the  east;  and  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  some  of  the  wards  of  these 
earlier  western  Cities  were  governed  for 
many  years  largely  by  "the  strength  of 
the  good  right  arms"  of  the  keepers  in 
charge.  How  chemistry  and  materia  med- 
ica  came  finally  to  the  aid  of  "the  good 
right  arm"  we  shall  see  in  a  moment. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  it  was 
the  criminal  inmate  of  these  early  western 
institutions  who  made  the  most  trouble  for 
his  keepers.  On  the  contrary,  the  most 
troublesome  man  was  likely  to  be  the  one 
who  had  been  an  honest,  law-abiding  citi- 
zen all  his  life  until  overtaken  by  his  men- 
tal affliction. 

196 


RECREATION  HALL  AT  THE  DANNEMORA  (N.Y.) 
STATE  HOSPITAL 

Lower  picture;  A  stairway  in  the  Dannemora  State  Hospital,  and  an  old 
trusty  who  has  been  a  ' '  citizen ' '  for  many  years. 

Courtesy  of  Dr.  Charles  H.  North 


C     ? 

"~^     j~ 

C     9 


THE    SHOT 

This  man,  not  realizing  his  condition, 
and  considering  himself  unjustly  detained 
as  a  prisoner,  would  fight  for  liberty  with 
persistent  ferocity  quite  beyond  that  of 
the  habitual  criminal.  It  was  this  feature 
of  such  cases — the  fact  that  the  Citizen 
really  believed  that  he  was  fighting  a  just 
fight — that  made  the  spectacle  more  de- 
plorable. '  Yet  of  course  the  unfortunate 
had  to  be  controlled  at  any  cost,  little  as 
he  was  able  to  appreciate  this  necessity. 
And  there  are  many  gray-haired  attend- 
ants still  living  who  carry  scars,  broken 
bones,  and  permanent  internal  injuries  as 
evidence  of  these  early  fights,  before  the 
hypodermic  syringe  and  the  tiny  alkaloid 
tablet — the  "shot,"  as  it  was  known  in 
the  vernacular — came  to  the  rescue  of 
themselves  and  their  charges. 

A  most  striking  example  of  what  the 
"shot"  sometimes  did  in  a  desperate  case 
was  shown  in  its  effect  upon  a  -former 
197 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

sheriff  who  was  an  inmate  of  one  of  the 
western  cities.  This  man,  a  respected  citi- 
zen and  public  officer  for  several  years  in 
his  community,  became  insane  in  the  prime 
of  life,  and  was  brought  to  one  of  the  state 
hospitals  for  restraint.  The  details  of  how 
he  was  finally  taken  into  custody  and 
transported  to  the  hospital  by  half  a  dozen 
stout  deputies — how  he  "stood  off  "  an  en- 
tire neighborhood  with  a  Winchester, 
wounded  several  men,  and  was  finally  cap- 
tured by  a  cowboy  with  a  lariat  after  his 
ammunition  was  exhausted — these  are  in- 
teresting details  that  need  not  detain  us. 
Suffice  it  that  this  desperate  man — a  one- 
armed  man  at  that — was  finally  landed  in 
the  hospital  and  turned  loose  with  a  score 
of  other  patients  under  the  care  of  three 
attendants. 

Realizing  that  in  his  excited  condition 
the  sheriff  was  likely  to  make  no  end  of 
trouble,  the  medical  officers  of  the  institu- 
198 


THE    SHOT 

tion  attempted  to  administer  narcotics; 
but  at  that  time  hypodermic  medication 
was  little  known,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
force  drugs  down  the  man's  throat.  The 
only  course  left  open  to  the  keepers  of  the 
ward  was  to  use  force,  as  gently  as  pos- 
sible, of  course,  but  to  any  necessary  de- 
gree in  the  last  extremity.  And  the  first 
encounter  between  them  and  the  sheriff 
convinced  everyone  that  "last  extremity" 
measures  were  the  first  and  only  appro- 
priate ones  when  dealing  with  the  ex-offi- 
cer. 

As  was  said  a  moment  ago,  the  sheriff 
was  a  one-armed  man,  or,  rather,  a  one- 
handed  man,  his  left  hand  having  been 
amputated  at  the  wrist;  but  this  seeming 
disadvantage  was  really  a  very  decided 
advantage  in  a  rough-and-tumble  fight. 
For  a  blow  given  with  this  stump  was  very 
like  that  of  a  wooden  mallet;  and  at  close 
quarters  the  sheriff  could  jerk  loose  his 
199 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

shortened  arm  and  deliver  a  blow  from  an 
unexpected  quarter  with  telling  effect. 
For  years  he  had  been  the  best  fighter  in 
his  community,  and  in  his  first  battle  in 
the  Walled  City  he  sustained  his  reputa- 
tion fully.  In  less  than  five  minutes  he 
had  put  three  attendants  completely  out 
of  action.  More  attendants  came  crowd- 
ing from  other  wards,  only  to  be  bruised 
and  battered  before  the  sheriff  was  finally 
overpowered. 

Any  one  familiar  with  the  enormous 
strength  of  a  Jeffries,  a  Gotch,  or  a  Hack- 
enschmidt  will  appreciate  the  fact  that  if 
any  one  of  these  men  were  to  be  attacked 
by  almost  any  number  of  unarmed  men,  it 
would  be  practically  impossible  for  the 
crowd  to  overpower  him  until  he  had  ex- 
hausted himself;  and,  furthermore,  that 
this  exhaustion  would  not  come  until  many 
heads  had  been  broken.  The  only  way  to 
overpower  such  a  man  would  be  for  the 
200 


THE    SHOT 

attacking  party  to  work  in  systematic  re- 
lays, each  taking  its  punishment  until  re- 
lieved by  the  supports.  This  was  the 
course  finally  adopted  to  conquer  the 
doughty  sheriff.  But  altho  he  was 
finally  subdued  enough  so  that  he  could  be 
strapt  into  security,  he  was  by  no 
means  conquered,  and  was  ready  to  be  up 
and  fighting  the  moment  his  bonds  were 
loosened. 

What  to  do  with  the  man  was  a  prob- 
lem. By  the  use  of  straps  with  locking 
buckles,  judiciously  applied  so  that  he 
could  move  about  like  a  hobbled  horse,  he 
could  be  allowed  some  liberty;  and  there 
were  times  when  he  was  quiet  enough  so 
that  his  restraining  bonds  were  removed; 
but  each  time  that  this  experiment  was 
protracted  for  any  length  of  time  a  des- 
perate fight  resulted.  For  the  sheriff  was 
absolutely  unconquerable,  and  his  spirit 
unbreakable  by  any  such  means  as  brute 
201 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

force.  But  one  day  medical  science  pro- 
duced the  hypodermic  syringe,  and  a  little 
later  the  hospital  doctors  discovered  the 
"shot,"  and  the  sheriff's  fighting  spirit 
finally  succumbed  to  the  tiny  hollow  needle 
of  science. 

For  many  centuries — possibly  since  the 
very  dawn  of  civilization — a  medicinal 
herb  popularly  called  "henbane,"  and 
officially  "hyoscyamus,"  has  been  known. 
The  ancients  were  familiar  with  several  of 
its  peculiar  properties,  as  they  knew  of 
that  closely  allied  herb,  the  poison  hem- 
lock, that  caused  the  death  of  Socrates. 
Later  generations  of  physicians  found 
that  this  drug  had  practically  the  same  ef- 
fect as  the  deadly,  but  indispensable,  bel- 
ladonna, being  a  sedative  to  the  nervous 
system.  It  was  used,  therefore,  for  vari- 
ous disorders,  sometimes  as  a  tincture  or 
as  a  decoction,  and  at  times  even  as  an  ap- 
plication to  painful  swellings,  the  leaves 
202 


THE    SHOT 

of  the  plant  being  made  into  a  kind  of 
poultice.  But  at  last  chemists  discovered 
that  the  leaves  and  flowering  tops  of  all 
these  plants  contained  minute  quantities 
of  substances  called  alkaloids,  which  were 
largely  responsible  for  the  medicinal  and 
poisonous  action  of  each  plant.  The  hun- 
dredth part  of  a  grain  of  these  alkaloids, 
or  "active  principles,"  would  produce 
more  pronounced  and  definite  effects  than 
a  handful  of  the  leaves;  and  if  injected 
under  the  skin  hypodermically  acted  with 
magic  rapidity. 

Here  was  a  means  of  giving  medicines 
to  refractory  patients  who  refused  to  swal- 
low them ;  and  the  use — and  abuse,  in  some 
instances — of  the  hypodermic  syringe  be- 
came very  general  in  the  medical  world, 
particularly  in  the  "Walled  Cities.  Stimu- 
lants and  sedatives  could  be  administered 
at  will,  and  there  was  naturally  a  general 
search  for  hypodermic  medicines  to  meet 
203 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

all  conditions.  In  this  search  some  one 
discovered  a  wonderful,  and  not  com- 
monly known  or  credited  action  of  hyoscy- 
amine,  the  active  principle  of  the  long- 
known  henbane. 

As  was  said  a  moment  ago,  the  action  of 
this  drug  is  much  the  same  as  that  of 
atropine,  or  belladonna;  and  many  of  the 
text-books  at  the  present  time  fail  to  say 
anything  about  an  altogether  different 
and  remarkable  effect  produced  by  large 
doses  of  this  terrible  alkaloid.  This  effect 
can  be  described  technically  so  as  to  be  in- 
telligible; but  no  description  can  convey 
even  approximately  the  terrible  sensation 
produced  in  many  insane  patients  by  large 
doses.  In  a  general  way  this  condition 
may  be  said  to  be  a  paralysis  of  the  body 
without  a  corresponding  paralysis  of  the 
mind,  although  this  is  not  quite  correct, 
technically  speaking.  The  victim  lies  in 
an  absolutely  helpless  condition,  some- 
204, 


THE    SHOT 

times  with  his  muscles  so  completely  para- 
lyzed that  he  cannot  so  much  as  move  a 
finger — cannot  close  his  lips,  or  move  his 
tongue  to  moisten  them. 

This  feeling  of  helplessness  is  usually 
followed  by  unconsciousness,  and  then  by 
a  period  of  terrible  depression.  The  com- 
bined feeling  of  helplessness  and  depres- 
sion is  absolutely  unlike  any  other  feeling 
imaginable,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  ac- 
counts of  those  who  have  experienced  it. 
Other  sensations  such  as  pain  may  be 
judged  in  a  measure  by  comparison  with 
other  painful  sensations  of  somewhat  sim- 
ilar character ;  but  with  the  sensation  pro- 
duced by  hyoscyamine  in  large  doses  there 
seems  to  be  no  basis  for  comparison. 
There  is  no  kindred  feeling.  I  have  known 
young  physicians  in  Walled  Cities  to  take 
a  "shot"  of  hyoscyamine  experimentally 
to  experience  the  effects,  just  as  young 
physicians  are  wont  to  do  with  all  kinds  of 
205 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

medicines.  I  have  known  them  to  do  this 
once  with  hyoscyamine;  but  I  never  knew 
one  who  would  willingly  repeat  the  experi- 
ment. 

It  was  while  the  sheriff  was  in  one  of 
his  terrible  fighting  moods  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  newly  discovered  "shot" 
reached  the  City  in  which  he  was  confined. 
A  new  physician  from  the  east  had 
brought  the  knowledge  with  him,  and  sug- 
gested using  it.  A  quartet  of  attendants 
accordingly  overpowered  the  fighter,  and 
held  him  long  enough  for  the  physician  to 
prick  the  skin  and  administer  the  "hyos" 
— a  process  requiring  only  a  matter  of 
three  or  four  seconds.  Then  the  attend- 
ants released  their  hold,  and  the  sheriff 
sprang  to  his  feet  again  ready  to  continue 
the  fight,  absolutely  unconscious  that  he 
had  in  his  system  at  that  moment  a  more 
powerful  opponent  than  the  combined 
strength  of  those  around  him — one  that 
206 


THE    SHOT 

dealt  its  blow  swiftly  and  surely,  and 
without  chance  of  a  return. 

For  five  minutes  he  paced  back  and 
forth  in  a  corner,  tiger-like,  waiting  for 
the  attack  of  his  enemies,  and  apparently 
puzzled  by  their  hesitancy.  Suddenly  he 
stopt,  put  his  hand  to  his  head  and 
stared  about  him  wildly  for  a  moment, 
staggering  against  the  wall,  but  quickly 
jerking  himself  back  into  balance  by  a 
powerful  effort.  A  moment  later  his 
knees  bent  under  him,  his  head  slowly 
drooped  forward,  and  he  collapsed  in  a 
heap  on  the  floor. 

The  attendants  carried  the  limp  figure 
into  a  room,  and  arranged  the  fighter  com- 
fortably on  a  bed.  For  hours  he  lay  as 
they  had  left  him.  Then  gradually  the 
effects  of  the  drug  wore  away,  his  muscu- 
lar control  returned,  and  he  was  able  to 
crawl  out  to  his  accustomed  place  on  the 
ward  again.  But  what  a  different  man 
207 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

from  the  dauntless  fighter  of  the  day  be- 
fore! The  unconquerable,  unquenchable 
spirit  of  yesterday  had  gone  forever.  And 
in  place  of  the  defiant  fighting  man,  chal- 
lenging everyone  about  him,  and  ready  to 
battle  against  all  odds  at  any  moment, 
was  a  groveling  creature,  who  begged  and 
reiterated  his  plea,  that  he  might  be 
spared  another  experience  such  as  that  he 
had  just  passed  through.  Nor  was  this 
merely  a  passing  fancy,  conceived  when 
the  memory  of  his  sufferings  was  still 
acute.  Days  and  weeks  passed,  and  still 
he  did  not  forget.  Indeed  he  never  again 
raised  his  hand  in  resistance  to  any  one 
in  authority  in  the  City. 

What  the  terrible  sensation  produced  by 
the  "shot"  is,  while  inconceivable,  may  be 
vaguely  understood  by  the  fact  that  an  un- 
conquerable spirit  like  that  of  the  Sher- 
iff's could  be  broken  completely  by  a  sin- 
gle administration.  There  are  many  cases 
208 


THE    SHOT 

where  a  single  administration  did  not  suf- 
fice, it  is  true ;  but  in  many  instances  it  did, 
and  the  others  always  succumbed  eventu- 
ally. Practically  every  institution  in  the 
world  adopted  it;  and  for  several  years  it 
was  considered  one  of  the  most  hopeful 
agents  ever  devised  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
trolling obstreperous  Citizens.  Then  other 
perfected  methods  were  introduced  for 
governing  the  Walled  Cities — more  attend- 
ants, more  room,  better  classification  of 
the  inmates,  prolonged  sedative  baths,  etc. 
— and  the  dreaded  "shot"  passed  into  his- 
tory— not,  however,  until  it  had  left  an  in- 
delible mark  upon  the  story  of  the  Walled 
Cities  of  the  world.  Like  the  "jiu  jitsu," 
it  had  its  uses  and  abuses.  It  represented 
a  transitory  phase  in  the  development  of 
the  asylum  systems  of  this  country;  and 
there  are  still  instances  where,  used  in  a 
modified  form,  it  is  both  necessary  and 
beneficial.  But  the  day  of  its  abuse  has 
209 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

long  since  departed.  It  is  now  only  a  rem- 
iniscence, to  be  recalled  by  the  older  vet- 
eran members  of  the  Cities,  in  talking  over 
the  "old  days." 


210 


Chapter  IX 
CONTENTED   CITIZENS 


211 


Chapter  IX 
CONTENTED   CITIZENS 

Possibly  the  impression  has  been  con- 
veyed from  what  has  been  said  that  the 
Walled  City  might  just  as  appropriately 
be  called  the  City  of  Gloom.  If  so,  this 
should  be  corrected.  There  are  many 
gloom  sides  to  the  City,  to  be  sure,  just 
as  there  are  in  all  cities ;  but  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  probably  a  larger  percent- 
age of  persons  who  are  happy  in  every 
Walled  City  than  in  any  city  of  the  same 
size,  or,  for  that  matter,  ten  times  the  size, 
outside.  For  those  unfamiliar  with  the 
usual  course  of  insanity  this  statement  re- 
quires an  explanation. 

Like  almost  every  other  disease  affect- 
213 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

ing  certain  definite  organs  of  the  body,  in- 
sanity passes  through  various  stages,  and 
terminates  in  one  of  three  ways — by  the 
recovery  or  death  of  the  patient,  or  by  the 
disease  assuming  a  chronic  form.  A  large 
majority  of  cases  pass  on  into  this  chronic 
state,  the  afflicted  ones  becoming  the  per- 
manent members  of  the  Walled  City  com- 
munities. It  is  among  these  that  the  happy 
and  contented  individuals  are  found. 

The  lives  of  such  individuals,  to  be  sure, 
are  frequently  more  like  those  of  pampered 
animals  than  those  of  human  beings;  but 
if  finding  pleasure  and  amusement  in  one 's 
surroundings,  having  all  one  requires — no 
worries  or  troubles  to-day  and  no  thought 
of  the  possibility  of  any  to-morrow — if  this 
is  what  is  meant  by  "happiness,"  then  the 
Walled  Cities  have  more  than  their  share 
of  happy  people. 

For  the  first  few  months,  or  even  for  a 
year  or  two,  after  entering  the  Walled 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

City  the  newcomer  may  be  the  very  anti- 
thesis of  happy;  but  it  is  not  necessarily 
his  surroundings  that  cause  this,  as  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  ordinarily  his  con- 
dition improves  on  reaching  the  institu- 
tion. It  is  usually  the  nature  of  his  dis- 
ease that  makes  him  unhappy.  If  he  be- 
gins to  improve  he  becomes  happier  al- 
most invariably ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
he  grows  no  better,  gradually  lapsing  into 
the  incurable  stage  of  his  disease  known 
as  "dementia,"  he  is  even  more  likely  to 
be  satisfied  and  contented  with  his  lot. 

It  is  true  that  he  rarely  forgets  that  he 
is  a  prisoner,  and  he  may  ask  frequently 
to  be  allowed  to  leave  the  City.  But  with 
a  great  number  of  the  chronic  cases  this 
asking  is  really  only  a  meaningless  habit. 
To  these  it  means  no  more  than  the  usual 
"good  morning"  greeting  given  by  outsid- 
ers, when  in  reality  the  morning  may  be 
anything  but ' '  good. ' ' 
215 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

If  some  day  the  gates  of  the  City  were 
to  be  thrown  open  and  the  Citizens  told 
they  were  free  to  leave,  many  would  de- 
cline the  offer.  Many  others,  impelled  by 
habit,  would  take  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunity they  had  been  seeking  so  long.  But 
by  nightfall  a  very  large  number  of  these 
older  Citizens  would  have  returned  to  the 
City  (if  they  could  find  the  way),  glad  to 
be  safely  back  in  their  familiar  surround- 
ings, where  they  were  sure  of  a  warm 
room,  a  warm  bed,  and  plenty  of  food. 
And  yet  the  first  Citizens  to  come  trooping 
back  would  probably  be  the  very  ones  who 
had  been  most  persistent  in  their  requests 
to  be  allowed  to  leave.  The  experiment  of 
actually  opening  the  gates  and  giving  per- 
mission to  leave  has,  of  course,  never  been 
tried ;  but  on  a  small  scale  it  has  been  done 
often  enough  to  make  it  certain  what 
would  happen  if  it  were  to  be  tried. 

In  one  City  of  my  acquaintance  there 
216 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

was  an  old  patient  known  to  everyone  as 
"Fred,"  who  had  been  a  Citizen  for  a 
score  of  years,  and  who  was  one  of  the 
characters  of  the  place.  He  had  become  a 
simple,  childish,  but  apparently  perfectly 
happy  old  man.  And  yet  he  never  allowed 
a  day  to  pass  that  he  did  not  stop  some  of- 
ficer and  ask  to  be  given  his  liberty.  Fre- 
quently he  would  not  even  wait  to  receive 
an  answer,  but  pass  on,  smiling  as  always, 
satisfied  apparently  with  having  asked  his 
usual  question.  But  one  day  the  superin- 
tendent, as  an  amusing  experiment,  sur- 
prised the  old  man  by  granting  his  request. 

"You  can  go  if  you  wish,  Fred,"  he  said, 
"but  mind  you — you  must  go  immediately, 
and  never  come  back." 

Fred's  countenance  fell  at  once,  and  he 
began  to  "hedge." 

"But  how  can  I  go  without  money!"  he 
asked. 

The  superintendent  took  a  bill  from  his 
217 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

pocket  and  handed  it  to  him,  telling  him  to 
hurry  off  the  grounds  before  he  recalled 
his  offer.  The  old  fellow,  unable  to  think 
of  any  more  excuses  for  not  going,  shuffled 
to  the  door,  went  slowly  down  the  steps, 
and  started  along  the  road  in  the  direction 
of  the  town,  walking  slowly  with  his  head 
drooping,  apparently  regretting  every 
step  that  was  taking  him  further  from  the 
building. 

Nothing  more  was  heard  of  him  until  al- 
most supper  time  that  evening,  when  a 
very  sheepish  old  figure  was  seen  hanging 
around  the  entrance  to  the  building.  He 
was  told  by  the  gatekeeper  who  pretended 
not  to  know  him,  that  "nobody  but  Citi- 
zens were  allowed  to  remain  about  the 
place."  Then  the  old  man  asked  meekly 
if  he  might  be  allowed  to  see  the  superin- 
tendent; and  after  more  waiting  the  re- 
quest was  granted.  But  that  officer  was 
obdurate:  he  had  granted  Fred's  request 
218 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

in  good  faith,  he  said,  and  had  given  him 
money.  The  City  was  altogether  too 
crowded  at  any  rate,  and  another  man  had 
been  found  already  to  fill  his  place. 

As  all  this  seemed  to  be  in  perfect  seri- 
ousness, Fred  was  in  abject  misery.  He 
begged,  entreated,  and  promised,  all  to  no 
purpose.  Then  he  took  another  tack, 
ceased  imploring  and  became  indignant. 
What  right  had  the  superintendent  to  re- 
fuse him  admission — he,  Fred  Wolfing, 
who  had  worked  for  years  without  pay  in 
the  City?  He  would  see  if  all  his  years  of 
labor  were  to  count  for  nothing.  He  would 
go  to  the  town,  hunt  up  a  judge,  and  com- 
pel the  superintendent  to  take  him  back! 

The  picture  drawn  by  the  old  man  of 
going  before  a  judge  and  demanding  ad- 
mission to  the  Walled  City  was  a  severe 
strain  on  the  assumed  gravity  of  the  offi- 
cer. At  last,  with  seeming  reluctance,  he 
agreed  to  let  Fred  return  on  "probation," 
219 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

with  the  understanding  that  the  first  time 
he  was  heard  to  mention  anything  about 
"getting  out"  to  any  one  he  was  to  be 
turned  out  of  the  place  forever.  And  so 
a  very  humble  and  contrite  old  man  shuf- 
fled into  his  accustomed  place  at  the  sup- 
per table,  glad  to  be  safe  at  "home" 
again.  As  in  the  case  of  scores  of  others 
of  his  class,  the  City  had  become  a  very 
dear  home  to  him  without  his  realizing  it. 
Cases  of  this  type  represent  a  very  large 
class  about  all  Walled  Cities.  Usually 
they  are  "trusties" — men  who  are  paroled 
and  allowed  to  go  about  where  they  please 
without  being  watched.  Frequently  they 
are  intelligent  enough  to  have  certain  work 
which  they  perform,  and  take  great  pride 
in  doing  it  well.  The  nature  of  crime  that 
is  responsible  for  their  coming  to  the  City 
usually  has  little  bearing  upon  their  con- 
duct once  they  have  reached  the  happy 
stage  of  dementia.  In  one  of  the  largest 
220 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

Cities  of  the  United  States  every  "trusty" 
having  the  liberty  of  the  grounds  was  a 
murderer.  Indeed  in  the  Walled  City  the 
inmates  who  are  to  be  most  depended 
upon,  and  who  give  the  least  trouble,  are 
frequently  the  murderers.  There  are  con- 
spicuous exceptions,  to  be  sure,  but  in  gen- 
eral the  rule  holds  good. 

Unless  something  is  known  of  the  pe- 
culiarities of  insanity,  and  something  also 
of  the  criminal's  nature  and  characteris- 
tics, this  is  difficult  to  understand;  and  in 
certain  cases  no  satisfactory  explanation 
is  possible.  Many  insane  persons  have 
been  "peculiar"  and  eccentric  all  their 
lives,  and  in  the  main  these  eccentricities 
continue,  possibly  in  modified  forms,  when 
they  become  insane.  Dishonesty  and  theft 
may  be  as  repugnant  to  an  insane  mur- 
derer as  to  the  model  citizen.  His  crime  is 
against  a  certain  individual,  and  is  often 
the  result  of  passion ;  whereas  the  attitude 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

of  such  a  criminal  as  a  burglar,  for  ex- 
ample, is  a  general  animosity  against  any 
property,  and  is  a  passionless  business 
transaction.  With  the  one,  crime  is  a 
means  of  making  a  living;  with  the  other 
the  pecuniary  consideration  has  no  part. 
Murders  are  committed,  to  be  sure,  purely 
for  financial  gain;  and  this  type  of  mur- 
derer is  the  worst  of  all  criminals.  But 
few  of  such  men  are  ever  fortunate  enough 
to  reach  the  Walled  City,  the  rope  or  the 
"chair"  cutting  short  their  careers. 

The  unfortunate  murderer  who  has  com- 
mitted his  crime  in  the  heat  of  passion,  or 
what  is  quite  as  frequent,  as  the  result  of 
some  imaginary  wrong,  is  likely  to  be  a 
very  different  type  of  individual  from  the 
ordinary  criminal.  Stealing  is  not  instinc- 
tive with  him,  and  if  he  gives  his  word  that 
he  will  not  attempt  to  escape  there  is  little 
danger  of  his  breaking  it.  In  short,  his  in- 
stincts are  not  "criminal"  in  the  usual 
222 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

sense  of  the  term.  And  while  it  is  possible 
that  if  he  were  to  be  returned  to  his  old 
surroundings  in  the  outside  world,  and 
given  the  same  environment  as  when  he 
committed  his  crime,  he  might  repeat  it, 
it  is  almost  certain  that  he  will  be  a  harm- 
less patient  in  the  City. 

Of  course  for  a  time  he  will  not  be 
trusted  too  far,  and  the  general  course  of 
his  insanity  will  be  pretty  definitely  de- 
termined before  any  positions  of  trust  are 
given  him.  But  once  his  case  is  thoroughly 
understood,  he  may  usually  be  trusted  im- 
plicitly. This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
such  a  large  percentage  of  Walled  City 
"trusties"  belong  to  this  class. 

But  altho  filling  positions  of  trust, 
and  where  considerable  judgment  in  a 
small  way  is  necessary  on  their  part,  these 
"  trusties "  frequently  have  most  peculiar 
delusions.  One  happy  and  contented  Ger- 
man Citizen  of  this  type,  named  Charlie 
223 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Beaman,  had  spent  twenty  years  in  the 
daily  task  of  taking  care  of  the  garbage 
of  his  City,  and  incidentally  in  shooting 
millions  of  imaginary  rabbits.  While 
working  away  happily  at  his  garbage  cans, 
the  white  haired  old  fellow  talked  and 
laughed  continually  to  himself  at  the  sport 
he  was  having.  Now  and  again  he  would 
pause  in  his  work,  raise  his  arms  as  if 
holding  a  gun,  aim  carefully,  and  then 
shout,  "Bang!" 

If  an  officer  happened  to  be  passing  at 
the  time  Charlie  would  run  up  to  him  and 
exclaim  gleefully: 

"I  shoot  ten  t'ousand  rabbits!" 

"Only  ten  thousand?"  the  officer  in- 
quires, surprised  at  so  small  a  bag. 

"Ten  t'ousand  million,"  Charlie  hastens 
to  correct,  "Ten  t'ousand  million — at  one 
shoot!" 

So  all  day  long  the  old  man  enjoys  him- 
self working  and  killing  countless  numbers 
224 


cd 


H    < 

S 


w  .^ 


<    t 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

of  rabbits.  Always  he  kills  ten  thousand 
at  the  first  shot ;  but  if  there  are  any  doubt- 
ing Thomases  about,  he  is  willing  to  raise 
the  number  glibly  to  "fifty  hundred  t'ou- 
sand  million"  as  occasion  may  demand. 
His  ideas  of  numbers  are  apparently  com- 
pletely perverted.  But  let  one  garbage 
can  less  than  the  regular  number  be  sent 
out,  or  let  any  other  mistake  occur  in  the 
line  of  his  regular  work,  and  it  will  soon 
be  discovered  that  Charlie's  perverted 
ideas  apply  only  to  imaginary  objects,  par- 
ticularly rabbits.  He  can  count  such  mun- 
dane things  as  garbage  cans  correctly,  and 
if  there  is  a  shortage  he  will  see  that  there 
is  no  peace  for  the  supervising  officers  un- 
til the  missing  cans  are  forthcoming.  He 
will  follow  them  about  alternately  scolding 
them  and  shooting  rabbits  until  his  wrongs 
are  righted. 

A  boon  companion  of  Charlie,  a  man 
of  about  the  same  age  who  had  spent  years 
225 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

in  the  City  and  was  a  '  *  trusty, ' '  was  Tom 
Walker,  a  good  natured  old  Irishman  who 
believed  that  he  was  the  great  Creator. 
His  particular  duty,  in  which  he  took  the 
greatest  pride,  was  caring  for  the  small 
porch  and  the  stone  steps  at  the  entrance 
to  one  of  the  buildings.  But  never  for  one 
moment,  not  even  during  the  somewhat 
lowly  task  of  scrubbing  the  stones,  did 
Tom  forget  that  he  was  the  Creator. 

''Tom,  who  are  you?"  someone  would 
ask  him. 

"I'm  God,  Sor,"  he  always  replied 
promptly. 

"And  did  you  make  this  world?"  they 
would  ask. 

Tom  would  always  pause  and  smile  at 
the  ignorance  of  the  questioner.  "This 
world?"  he  would  say,  scornfully;  "Huh, 
Mon!  This  is  one  of  the  smaller  worlds! 
It's  nuthin'."  And  then  becoming  confi- 
dential and  putting  on  his  most  persuasive 
226 


CONTENTED    CITIZENS 

smile  he  would  come  closer  and  whisper, 
"Have  you  a  bit  o'  'baccy?"  And  when 
the  coveted  morsel  was  given  him  he  would 
go  back  to  his  scrubbing,  chuckling  to  him- 
self, a  happy  and  contented  deity. 


227 


Chapter  X 

WHEN     DANGER     THREATENS     THE 
CITY 


229 


Chapter  X 

WHEN     DANGER     THREATENS     THE 
CITY 

Particular  stress  has  been  laid  on  the 
fact  that  most  of  the  more  active  Citizens 
are  constantly  planning  to  escape,  and  this 
has  not  been  overdrawn,  and  cannot  be  em- 
phasized too  strongly,  particularly  in  the 
case  of  certain  classes  of  Citizens.  But 
one  of  the  most  curious  paradoxes  in  the 
life  of  the  community  is  the  fact  that  in 
times  of  danger,  when  the  City  itself  or 
some  of  its  rulers  are  suddenly  threatened, 
these  very  Citizens  are  the  most  active  in 
averting  the  calamity. 

A  few  years  ago  a  fire  broke  out  in  the 
basement  of  one  of  the  largest  institutions 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

in  the  country,  kindled  by  a  pyromaniac 
who  had  made  his  way  beneath  the  build- 
ing. He  had  done  his  work  so  well  that 
when  the  flames  were  discovered  it  seemed 
as  if  there  was  no  chance  of  saving  the 
building.  This  meant  that  the  eight  hun- 
dred inmates  would  have  to  be  turned  loose 
into  the  fields,  from  which  any  of  the  ac- 
tive ones  could  escape,  since  the  mere 
handful  of  guards  could  not  control  such 
a  number. 

The  volunteer  firemen  of  the  institution 
could  make  no  headway  against  the  flames, 
partly  because  the  fires  had  been  started  in 
so  many  places  that  there  were  not  enough 
men  to  man  the  hose  and  bucket  lines.  In 
this  emergency  scores  of  the  more  active- 
minded  men,  some  of  them  the  most  des- 
perate characters  in  the  place,  offered  their 
services; — offered  to  fight  the  flames  that 
were  helping  them  to  freedom.  In  sheer 
desperation  their  services  were  accepted; 
232 


WHEN    DANGER    THREATENS 

and  never  did  heroes  acquit  themselves 
better  than  some  of  these  volunteers.  Time 
and  again  men  with  life  sentences  staring 
them  in  the  face  rushed  through  smoke  and 
fire,  fighting  until  overcome,  to  be  dragged 
out  and  resuscitated,  only  to  return  again 
to  the  fight.  Men  who  only  a  few  hours 
before  would  not  have  been  trusted  with 
even  such  a  comparatively  harmless 
weapon  as  a  piece  of  tin  or  a  nail  now 
swung  axes  and  sledges.  And  those  that 
could  not  get  to  the  actual  scene  of  activ- 
ity shouted  their  encouragements  to  the 
workers  who  were  blocking  their  way  to 
liberty.  On  one  ward  a  newcomer,  recog- 
nizing that  the  chance  of  a  lifetime  was  at 
hand,  proposed  to  his  companions  that 
they  make  a  break  for  liberty.  But  when 
he  attempted  to  lead  the  way  himself  he 
was  blocked  by  his  companions,  some  of 
whom  used  him  so  roughly  that  only  time- 
ly interference  of  an  officer  saved 
233 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

One  muscular  old  blacksmith  who  was 
serving  a  life  sentence  particularly  distin- 
guished himself.  He  beat  down  heavy 
doors  and  partitions  that  had  resisted  the 
sledge  when  wielded  by  weaker  hands,  and 
for  full  three  hours  stood  ankle  deep  in 
the  freezing  cold  water,  until  the  last  ves- 
tige of  the  fire  was  stamped  out.  Then  he 
rolled  himself  up  in  his  blanket  and  went 
to  sleep  as  if  nothing  unusual  had  hap- 
pened. 

Thus  these  Citizens  fought  and  saved 
their  City — fought  against  their  own 
chances  of  liberty  as  eagerly  as  they  would 
have  fought  for  it  under  other  circum- 
stances. The  common  danger  stirred  with- 
in them  irresistibly  their  better  selves, — 
sentiments  all  but  completely  supprest 
in  many  cases, — and  responsive  only  to 
some  sudden  and  extraordinary  stimulus. 
Given  a  few  hours  to  think  the  matter 
over,  and  many  a  Citizen  who  worked 
234 


WHEN    DANGER    THREATENS 

faithfully  that  day  would  have  acted  dif- 
ferently ;  but  the  sudden  call  to  action  gave 
little  time  for  reasoning,  and  allowed  the 
natural  instinct  for  good,  which  is  inhe- 
rent in  almost  every  man,  to  dominate  for 
the  moment. 

But  while  unusual  events  like  this  fire 
call  out  the  better  instincts  of  the  Citizens 
occasionally,  scarcely  a  month  goes  by 
in  the  City  when  some  member  of  the  com- 
munity is  not  given  a  chance  to  show  that, 
on  some  grounds  at  least,  he  may  claim 
kinship  to  the  best  of  men.  Many  a  keeper 
or  attendant,  caught  at  a  disadvantage  by 
some  violent  Citizen  owes  his  life  to  the 
friendly  assistance  of  some  of  his  charges. 
So  that  while  the  Citizens  are  the  cause  of 
most  of  the  tragedies,  they  are  also  the 
means  of  preventing  many  others. 

In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  a  bond 
very  closely  akin  to  friendship  must  be 
formed  between  men  who  spend  hours 
235 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

every  day  for  many  years  in  the  same 
room,  no  matter  what  their  relative  social 
status  may  be.  Many  of  the  Citizens,  even 
some  of  the  desperate  characters,  have 
been  for  years  under  the  care  of  the  same 
attendant,  and  in  many  instances  have  be- 
come very  much  attached  to  him.  They 
realize  that  the  attendant  is  not  directly 
responsible  for  their  incarceration,  and 
that  he  is  simply  doing  his  duty  in  keeping 
them  in  bondage.  If  it  were  not  that  par- 
ticular keeper  it  would  be  some  other.  And 
if  this  keeper  treats  them  well,  as  he  usu- 
ally does,  they  are  likely  to  come  to  regard 
him  in  the  light  of  an  old  friend.  They 
would  not  hesitate  to  elude  him  and  escape 
from  him  if  possible,  probably  would  beat 
his  brains  out  if  necessary  to  their  plans 
for  escape  should  he  chance  to  be  in  the 
way;  but  let  another  patient  on  the  ward 
attack  this  same  keeper — let  a  violent  pa- 
tient attempt  to  injure  him — and  almost 
236 


WHEN    DANGER    THREATENS 

invariably  lie  can  rely  upon  some  of  the 
older  patients  coming  to  his  rescue.  This 
is  one  of  the  peculiar  phases  of  Walled 
City  life;  and  yet  it  is  common  to  all 
Walled  Cities. 

In  one  of  the  Eastern  Cities  a  Citizen 
who  went  by  the  name  of  Buck  Con- 
way  had  a  peculiar  record  in  his  attitude 
toward  those  about  him.  He  was  a  "high 
class"  criminal, — a  bank  robber  by  pref- 
erence— but  aside  from  this  peculiar  defect 
in  his  moral  makeup,  he  was  in  every  way 
a  very  likeable,  and  a  very  manly  man. 
Like  most  of  the  men  of  his  class  he  held 
the  ordinary  thief  in  contempt,  and  indeed 
seemed  to  have  very  few  of  the  elements 
and  instincts  of  the  criminal.  He  was 
strictly  the  "gentleman  burglar,"  only  his 
attentions  were  always  confined  to  safes 
and  bank  vaults. 

One  day  when  he  had  been  in  the  City 
for  about  six  months  he  was  left  with  two 
237 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

other  patients  on  the  ward  with  a  single 
attendant,  who  was  busy  doing  some  work, 
and  paying  very  little  attention  to  his 
charges.  Seeing  a  good  opportunity  when 
the  attendant's  back  was  turned,  one  of 
the  patients  knocked  the  keeper  down,  and 
in  an  instant  had  him  by  the  throat.  Con- 
way,  who  had  been  reading  a  newspaper, 
seeing  what  was  going  on,  jumped  across 
the  room,  pulled  off  the  patient,  and  gave 
him  a  drubbing  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  a  pugilist. 

A  month  later  another  row  occurred  on 
the  ward,  two  attendants  handling  a  pa- 
tient with  unnecessary  violence.  This  time 
Conway  interfered  in  the  patient's  behalf 
— a  thing  that  few  inmates  ever  have  the 
temerity  to  do.  The  result  was  a  three- 
cornered  fight,  in  which  the  attendants  got 
all  the  worst  of  it.  Such  a  thing  is  very 
unusual  and  under  ordinary  circumstances 
would  demoralize  the  necessary  discipline 
238 


WHEN    DANGER    THREATENS 

of  the  ward.  But  Conway  was  known  to 
be  no  bully ;  and  when  the  affair  was  finally 
investigated  by  the  officials,  his  account 
was  taken  in  preference  to  that  of  the  two 
attendants,  both  of  whom  were  summarily 
dismissed. 

Under  the  circumstances  Conway  should 
naturally  have  been  hated  by  both  Citizens 
and  employes,  since  he  had  taken  equally 
active  parts  against  both;  but  curiously 
enough  he  remained  a  universal  favorite. 
Everybody  was  forced  to  admire  his  cour- 
age, and  the  impartiality  of  his  attitude, 
and  he  had  a  peculiarly  attractive  person- 
ality. Most  of  the  keepers  associated  with 
him  were  sturdy  sons  of  Erin  who  admire 
a  good  fighter  and  a  fair  fight.  The  most 
despicable  person  to  them  was  a  tattler. 
And  as  Conway  was  a  fair  fighter  and  no 
tattler,  never  having  been  known  to  open 
his  lips  against  friend  or  foe,  he  remained 
on  the  best  of  terms  with  all  of  them. 
239 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Among  the  Citizens  his  record  as  a  daring 
safe-blower  was  sufficient  to  inspire  ad- 
miration, and  his  record  as  a  fighter  in- 
sured their  respect. 


240 


Chapter  XI 
INJUSTICE   WITHIN   THE   WALLS 


241 


Chapter  XI 
INJUSTICE    WITHIN   THE    WALLS 

Perhaps  the  most  terrible  thing  to  con- 
template is  the  thought  of  being  punished 
unjustly — to  be  imprisoned  or  sentenced 
to  death  for  a  crime  committed  by  another. 
If  anything  would  destroy  the  reason, 
surely  false  imprisonment  would  do  so. 
Yet  if  a  person  had  been  guilty  of  many 
crimes  and  had  escaped  punishment,  and 
then  were  to  be  convicted  falsely,  it  would 
seem  that  he  should  be  little  affected  by  it, 
since  he  was  simply  getting  his  just  de- 
serts, only  on  a  little  different  technicality. 
But  this  is  not  the  case.  The  hardened 
criminal  who  is  falsely  convicted  fre- 
quently takes  it  to  heart  quite  as  much  as 
an  innocent  person. 

343 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

In  the  Walled  Cities  there  are  always  a 
certain  number  of  persons  who  claim  that 
they  have  been  falsely  convicted;  indeed, 
most  of  the  Citizens  are  likely  to  claim  in- 
nocence on  general  principles.  But  many 
of  them,  when  they  have  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  officials,  admit  their  guilt 
freely  enough;  and  with  the  others  there 
is  always  a  moral  certainty  that  they  are 
guilty.  The  men  most  likely  to  complain 
are  old  offenders  against  the  law  at  any 
rate,  so  that  the  ends  of  justice  are  not 
being  perverted  even  if  they  did  not  com- 
mit the  particular  crime  of  which  they  are 
accused;  and  in  point  of  fact,  false  con- 
victions are  rare. 

When,  therefore,  a  Citizen  comes  to  one 
of  the  officers  with  his  tale  of  false  con- 
viction, his  complaints  are  not  likely  to 
be  taken  too  seriously,  unless  there  is  some 
unusual  reason  for  it.  The  case  of  Jim 
Murphy,  a  hardened  criminal  who  came 


INJUSTICE  WITHIN  THE  WALLS 

into  one  of  the  Eastern  Cities  a  few  years 
ago,  proved  an  exception,  however,  and 
the  final  outcome  was  most  instructive  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  habitual  criminal. 

When  Murphy  came  into  the  City  from 
prison,  he  was  one  of  the  most  dejected, 
deprest,  and  altogether  miserable  objects 
imaginable.  He  had  served  only  one  year 
of  a  fifteen  year  sentence,  but  during  the 
last  three  months  of  his  imprisonment  he 
had  become  so  melancholy  and  completely 
unbalanced  that  he  was  finally  transferred 
to  the  Walled  City. 

For  several  days  after  his  arrival  there 
he  was  so  stupid  that  he  had  to  be  led 
about,  and  fed  with  a  spoon  at  meal  time. 
He  moaned  and  wrung  his  hands  continu- 
ally, mumbling  to  himself  an  unintelligible 
jumble  of  words.  In  two  weeks '  time,  how- 
ever, he  began  to  brighten  up  a  little,  and 
later  began  to  talk  more  rationally.  All 
of  this  talk  had  the  same  import — he  was 
245 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

being  falsely  imprisoned.  At  first  little 
attention  was  paid  to  this  most  common 
subject  of  conversation,  but  as  the  man 
regained  more  nearly  his  normal  mentality 
his  statements  began  to  carry  some  weight. 
What  strengthened  his  case  was  the  fact 
that  he  acknowledged  being  an  habitual 
criminal  who  had  served  four  terms  in 
prison,  and  asserted  frankly  that  there 
were  numerous  important  crimes  to  his 
credit  of  which  he  was  not  even  suspected. 
But  of  this  one  particular  crime  for  which 
he  and  an  associate  had  been  convicted, 
he  insisted  that  he  was  innocent,  and  that 
not  being  able  to  establish  the  fact  had 
driven  him  insane. 

There  is  usually  something  about  an  in- 
nocent person  that  bespeaks  his  innocence. 
Just  what  that  particular  something  may 
be  psychologists  have  not  as  yet  deter- 
mined; but  frequently  it  does  not  require 
the  special  psychologist  to  detect  it.  And 
246 


INJUSTICE  WITHIN  THE  WALLS 

so  while  a  score  of  other  prisoners  were 
making  the  same  complaint  as  Murphy, 
with  apparently  just  as  good  grounds  for 
their  assertions,  his  was  the  only  one  that 
carried  much  weight.  Several  of  the  offi- 
cials and  attendants  were  convinced  be- 
fore they  cared  to  acknowledge  it;  for 
none  of  them  like  to  be  " taken  in"  by 
their  charges.  But  one  day  the  medical 
officer  had  the  temerity  to  announce  his  be- 
lief that  Murphy  was  telling  the  truth.  He 
did  not  announce  this  openly,  but  he  took 
occasion  to  call  an  old  and  skilled  attend- 
ant, whose  opinion  in  such  cases  he  had 
learned  to  respect,  and  confided  his  opin- 
ion to  him.  Somewhat  to  his  surprise  the 
attendant  acknowledged  that  he  had 
formed  the  same  opinion;  and  by  further 
inquiry  it  was  found  that  this  was  the  con- 
census of  opinion  of  all  those  connected 
with  the  case. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done  in  the 
247 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

matter  for  the  moment,  altho  Murphy 
wrote  a  series  of  letters  to  the  governor, 
the  judge  who  sentenced  him,  and  various 
other  persons,  as  is  the  privilege  of  every 
Citizen.  Meanwhile  he  was  rapidly  recov- 
ering his  normal  mental  condition.  One 
day  he  received  a  large  envelop  bearing 
the  seal  of  the  prosecuting  attorney  who 
had  secured  his  conviction.  In  this  was  a 
letter  stating  that  the  attorney  had  abso- 
lute proof  that  the  conviction  of  Murphy 
was  a  miscarriage  of  justice ;  that  the  real 
culprit  had  been  apprehended  a  short  time 
before,  and  had  made  a  full  confession. 
That  he,  the  attorney,  had  taken  the  nec- 
essary steps  not  only  to  have  Murphy  par- 
doned, but  had  set  the  machinery  at  work 
to  have  the  Legislature  recompense  him 
for  his  eighteen  months  of  imprisonment. 
Two  weeks  later  the  pardon  from  the 
Governor  arrived,  and  with  it  an  official 
letter  to  the  effect  that  the  Legislature 
248 


INJUSTICE  WITHIN  THE  WALLS 

would  in  all  probability  grant  the  sum  of 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  to  be  divided 
equally  between  Murphy  and  the  man  con- 
victed with  him.  At  the  same  time  a  let- 
ter came  to  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Walled  City,  directing  him  to  buy  Murphy 
a  ticket  to  the  Capital,  give  him  the  usual 
allowance  of  spending  money  (ten  dollars) 
and  discharge  him. 

And  now  for  the  remarkable  sequel. 

Murphy  was  driven  to  the  station  in  the 
neighboring  town  to  take  his  train.  Un- 
luckily for  him  the  train  happened  to  be 
half  an  hour  late  that  day.  So  to  pass  the 
time  away  Murphy,  a  free  American  citi- 
zen, strolled  about  the  town.  As  luck 
would  have  it  he  passed  a  house  where 
there  was  nobody  in  sight,  and  where  a 
cellar  door  had  been  left  temptingly  ajar. 
Murphy  was  not  hungry ;  he  had  money  in 
his  pocket;  he  had  the  assurance  that  un- 
dreamed of  wealth  awaited  him  at  the 
249 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

Capital.  But  that  unguarded  open  door 
appealed  to  him  irresistibly.  He  was  a 
criminal  at  heart  despite  the  Governor's 
pardon  in  his  pocket.  And  so  he  slipt 
into  the  open  door,  was  detected  in  the  act, 
and  half  an  hour  after  leaving  the  City  a 
free  man  was  again  a  fugitive  from  justice. 
Murphy's  is  a  remarkable  case,  altho 
by  no  means  unprecedented.  Here  was  an 
habitual  criminal,  so  steeped  in  criminal 
instincts  that  he  could  not  resist  the  oppor- 
tunity to  steal,  even  with  the  certainty  of 
having  more  money  by  remaining  honest  a 
few  hours  than  he  could  ever  hope  to  gain 
in  any  other  way.  And  yet  when  this  man 
was  falsely  convicted,  the  fact  so  preyed 
upon  his  mind  as  to  wreck  it  completely 
for  the  time  being. 


250 


Chapter  XII 

THE     EFFECTS     OF     GOOD     GOVERN- 
MENT 


251 


Chapter  XII 

THE     EFFECTS     OF     GOOD     GOVERN- 
MENT 

In  the  Walled  City  practically  every  of- 
ficer and  employe  for  at  least  several  hours 
each  day  is  in  immediate  contact  with  the 
peculiar  inhabitants.  Indeed,  except  as 
they  go  away  from  the  institution  a  few 
times  each  week,  officials  and  keepers  are 
never  really  out  of  the  atmosphere  of  de- 
lusions and  hallucinations.  What  is  the 
effect  of  such  a  peculiar  life?  Does  it 
tend  to  produce  a  similar  condition?  Some 
general  facts  will  help  us  in  answering 
these  questions. 

When  institutions  for  caring  for  the  in- 
sane were  first  established  they  were  in- 
tended simply  as  places  where  the  unfor- 
tunates could  be  kept  safely  and  conven- 
253 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

iently — asylums  for  restraining  the  insane 
rather  than  hospitals  for  curing  them. 
As  insanity  was  not  recognized  as  a  dis- 
ease, but  as  a  "possession  by  demons," 
the  unfortunates  were  huddled  together  in 
barn-like  structures,  chained  in  stalls,  fed 
like  animals,  and  frequently  subjected  to 
the  brutal  treatment  that  would  be  given 
unruly  cattle.  As  a  result  few  of  those 
who  were  condemned  to  these  "asylums" 
ever  recovered.  But  about  a  century  back, 
when  diseases  and  the  causes  of  disease 
began  to  be  better  understood,  two  wise 
physicians  in  Europe,  and  our  own  Dr. 
Eush  of  Philadelphia,  prompted  by  hu- 
mane motives,  and  perceiving  that  insan- 
ity was  a  disease  in  the  generally  accepted 
sense  of  the  term,  inaugurated  some  revo- 
lutionary changes  in  the  treatment  of  such 
cases.  They  struck  off  the  shackles  and 
allowed  the  poor  creatures  the  freedom  of 
the  halls  and  yards. 

254 


EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

At  the  time  the  act  was  considered  lit- 
tle less  than  madness.  It  seemed  like  un- 
chaining wild  animals.  But  greatly  to  the 
surprise  of  everyone  except  a  few  of  the 
wiser  physicians,  no  untoward  results  oc- 
curred. Indeed,  from  the  very  first  there 
was  a  marked  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  inmates,  and  a  few  even  re- 
gained their  normal  minds  completely. 

Gradually  as  these  asylums  grew  in  pop- 
ularity and  were  improved  in  details  it 
became  evident  that  they  acted  beneficially 
on  the  minds  of  the  inmates — that  they 
were  indeed  hospitals  as  well  as  asylums. 
And  finally,  after  long  years  of  ceaseless 
struggle  for  recognition  as  places  of  cura- 
tive treatment  similar  in  scope  to  general 
hospitals,  they  came  to  be  accepted  by 
members  of  the  medical  profession,  at 
least,  not  merely  as  "mad  houses,"  but  as 
places  where  patients  are  given  special  fa- 
cilities for  recovery. 

255 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

If  the  effect  upon  the  patient  of  being 
shut  up  in  the  Walled  City  is  to  improve 
his  mental  balance,  then  a  somewhat  sim- 
ilar effect  must  be  exerted  upon  the  offi- 
cials and  employes  who  live  in  the  institu- 
tion. At  least  it  would  scarcely  be  possi- 
ble for  it  to  have  the  opposite  effect,  as 
many  suppose.  Yet  this  fact  is  probably 
as  difficult  of  comprehension  to  the  casual 
observer  who  has  had  no  practical  experi- 
ence as  any  other  single  thing  about  the 
City. 

The  first  sensation  of  the  novice  in  visit- 
ing an  institution  is  to  feel  that  "if  he 
were  to  remain  there  for  a  few  days  he 
would  go  crazy."  The  peculiar  people, 
sights,  and  sounds,  so  entirely  different 
from  anything  he  has  ever  encountered  be- 
fore give  him  a  "queer"  feeling.  But  in 
point  of  fact  the  sensation  is  quite  analo- 
gous to  the  feeling  of  a  man  accustomed 
to  the  quiet  of  his  room,  when  he  first  en- 
256 


EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

counters  a  typical  city  business  office,  with 
the  clatter  of  typewriters,  the  jangle  of 
tongues,  and  the  interruptions  of  people 
hurrying  in  and  out.  For  a  day  or  two 
he  feels  that  he  could  never  collect  his 
thoughts  in  such  a  place.  But  before  the 
end  of  the  first  week  he  has  forgotten  all 
about  the  clatter,  and  can  collect  his 
thoughts  quite  as  well  as  in  his  quiet  room 
at  home. 

In  the  same  manner  the  newcomer  is 
affected  by  the  unusual  and  unnatural 
things  going  on  about  him  in  the  Walled 
City.  But  added  to  this,  and  so  differing 
from  a  city  office,  is  the  dread  of  a  mysteri- 
ous "something."  These  people  moving 
about  him,  and  seeming  so  very  like  ordi- 
nary people,  he  knows  are  insane — a 
word  that  conveys  such  an  entirely  differ- 
ent meaning  to  him  at  first  from  what  it 
will  a  few  days  later.  He  is  expectant  and 
apprehensive.  When  he  walks  through  the 
257 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

halls  he  cannot  resist  glancing  furtively 
over  his  shoulder  now  and  again,  and  the 
expression  of  his  face  is  one  of  astonish- 
ment or  timidity.  He  may  be  an  ex- 
ceptionally brave  man  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances— a  man  who  would  lead  a  for- 
lorn hope  into  any  ordinary  danger;  and 
yet  he  will  be  quite  the  exception  if  he  does 
not  feel  something  quite  akin  to  fear  dur- 
ing his  first  day  on  the  halls  of  the  Walled 
City.  There  is  something  seemingly  oc- 
cult,— something  so  completely  out  of  the 
range  of  his  ordinary  experiences  in  the 
new  surroundings — that  a  hitherto  un- 
known nervous  strain  is  produced.  It  is 
this  that  makes  him  feel  that  he  would  * '  go 
crazy"  if  he  remained  in  the  place. 

Frequently  the  actions  of  many  of  the 
citizens  themselves  add  to  the  newcomer 's 
discomfiture.  He  may  be  clothed  in  the 
regulation  uniform  like  the  other  attend- 
ants, but  this  does  not  disguise  the  fact 
258 


EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

from  the  inhabitants  that  he  is  a  novice; 
and  sometimes  the  wags  among  them  play 
pranks  of  a  surprising  nature  upon  him. 
The  Walled  City  must  have  its  amusement ; 
and  while  these  pranks  are  always  harm- 
less, they  are  none  the  less  disconcerting 
and  harrowing  to  the  nerves  of  the  new- 
comer. He  must  pay  the  penalty  of  being 
a  "tenderfoot";  and  no  Western  towns- 
men ever  took  greater  delight  in  "initiat- 
ing" a  greenhorn  than  do  the  Citizens  of 
the  Walled  City. 

Natural  pride  usually  restrains  the  nov- 
ice from  admitting  the  state  of  his  feel- 
ings ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  first  day  many 
a  new  man  has  been  known  to  obtain  per- 
mission to  leave  the  City,  ostensibly  for 
the  purpose  of  doing  some  necessary  er- 
rands, and  has  never  returned.  Knowing 
what  the  experience  of  the  new  employe  is 
likely  to  be,  and  knowing  also  how  soon 
this  peculiar  feeling  will  pass  away,  the 
259 


THE  WALLED  CITY 

officer  of  the  City  who  employs  the  attend- 
ants sometimes  makes  a  rigid  compact 
with  the  novice  that  he  shall  remain  at 
least  three  days  in  the  City  no  matter  how 
much  he  may  wish  to  leave  it,  or  what  his 
decision  may  be  later.  For  the  officer 
knows  that,  little  as  the  "tenderfoot" 
would  have  believed  it  at  the  end  of  the 
first  day,  his  peculiar  sensations  will  have 
entirely  disappeared  by  the  end  of  the 
third  day.  No  more  pranks  can  be  played 
upon  him,  and  he  can  look  forward  glee- 
fully to  participating  as  a  veteran  in  the 
"  initiation "  of  the  next  newcomer.  Fur- 
thermore, he  will  never  again,  under  any 
circumstances,  experience  the  sensations  of 
his  first  day.  Once  he  has  shaken  off  this 
initial  "queer"  feeling,  which  every  per- 
son, practically  without  exception,  experi- 
ences, he  may  leave  the  City,  and  not  see 
it  or  any  similar  institution  for  many 
years;  yet  at  the  end  of  that  time  if  he 
260 


EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

were  to  go  into  any  Walled  City  he  would 
feel  " perfectly  at  home."  No  one  will 
need  to  be  told  that  he  is  a  veteran.  He 
looks  it,  acts  it,  feels  it,  quite  as  markedly 
as  he  looked  and  acted  the  "tenderfoot" 
before. 

The  initial  sensations  of  the  newcomer 
to  the  City,  then,  correspond  to  the  "blue 
funk"  of  the  volunteer  on  entering  his  first 
battle,  or  the  stage  fright  of  the  cub  actor. 
But  it  is  obviously  quite  as  unreasonable 
to  judge  the  general  effect  of  life  in  the 
Walled  City  by  this,  as  it  would  be  to  judge 
the  effect  of  army  life  by  the  feelings  of 
a  man  at  his  baptism  of  fire,  or  by  the  sen- 
sations of  a  novice  stammering  his  first 
lines.  All  must  be  judged  by  their  veter- 
ans, not  by  their  novices.  And  the  stand- 
ard of  normal  mentality  is  quite  as  high 
among  the  officials  and  employes  in  the 
Walled  Cities  as  it  is  in  outside  cities.  In- 
deed it  is  said  to  be  much  higher;  and 
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THE  WALLED  CITY 

there  are  certain  reasons  why  this  should 
be  so. 

Every  person  has  more  or  less  pro- 
nounced insane  tendencies.  Probably  he  is 
not  conscious  that  they  are  so,  and  whether 
he  is  or  is  not,  he  usually  restrains  or 
overcomes  them.  If  they  are  pronounced, 
and  he  is  not  aware  of  them  or  only 
vaguely  so,  they  may  grow  upon  him  until 
they  produce  actual  insanity.  Had  he  been 
warned  of  these  tendencies  in  their  incip- 
iency  it  is  possible  that  he  might  have  over- 
come them;  and  it  is  the  constant  task  of 
alienists  and  neurologists  to  seek  out  these 
incipient  tendencies  and  to  warn  their  pa- 
tients against  them.  By  pointing  out  the 
dangers  in  time — by  showing  that  they  are 
dangers — their  patients  may  be  able  to 
avert  them. 

Those  in  charge  of  the  Walled  Cities 
have  constantly  before  them  the  warning 
of  striking  examples.  They  see  all  about 
262 


EFFECTS  OF  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

them  men  who  have  paid  the  penalty  of 
failing  to  correct  their  insane  tendencies. 
This  must  necessarily  call  vividly  to  their 
minds  the  existence  of  certain  similar  ten- 
dencies of  their  own,  should  they  have  any, 
— tendencies  that  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
events  in  the  outside  world  might  have  es- 
caped attention.  Here  they  see  the  Citizen 
whose  ungoverned  temper  has  brought  him 
to  mental  ruin ;  a  second  whose  protracted 
broodings  have  blighted  his  reason ;  a  third 
who  is  " paying  the  wages  of  sin";  and  so 
on.  And  it  is  a  thoughtless  person  indeed 
who  gives  no  heed  to  these  warnings  thrust 
upon  him. 

This,  then,  answers  the  question  as  to 
what  the  mental  effect  may  be  upon  the 
dwellers  in  the  Walled  Cities.  That  its 
effects  are  not  demoralizing  is  attested  by 
the  hundreds  of  clear-headed  veteran  rul- 
ers and  their  assistants  who  have  grown 
gray  at  their  life-work  within  the  walls. 
263 


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